Picking Up the Broken Pieces
by Psychochiquita
Summary: Started as a one shot, but got too caught up in it. Starts a year after Megamind's big hero finale, but things don't seem to be settled in for our boy in blue. He's been through heck and high water, but when it comes to making one phone call, it leaves him reeling in anxiety. However little does he know what lies ahead in life for him as a result. Undergoing Hiatus/Major Reviewing.
1. If Not For Me

He stared intently to the phone that lay in the middle of the desk. Wires, bolts, blueprints and crumpled up pieces of paper scattered around it, as if the cell was toxic to touch. Anxiety ate away in his stomach and it didn't help that he hadn't finished his dinner properly; it sat on the table with almost an uncanny resemblance to the clutter on the desk from him pushing his food around with the fork.

He had been thinking this moment over in his head since he found out his life was going to become a little more meaningful, yet as the months passed by he couldn't put his courage together to face his biggest challenge so far.

The only reason he ever kicked himself to get a move on was because he was scared awake from a dream the night before. The contents of said dream eluded him but he knew its purpose was to get him to finally make a move on, yet here he was.

 _What is this?_ he questioned himself. _What's wrong with me? I've been able to fight ungodly humans, outwitted the whole of the city's finest when there was a bounty on my head, AND save the love of my life from, well, ...an experiment gone wrong-_ he told himself, putting the incident lightly.

And yet here he was, former master of all villainy and current hero to his, no, _their_ city, and he couldn't make a single phone call to save himself from all this stressful agony.

"Honey? Whats wrong? You hardly touched the plate, other than to make a mess," a gentle voice said behind him as hands came down his shoulders and clasped across his chest. She looked over the side of his abnormally large head and gazed at the cellphone that sat on the desk, faced up but screen off.

"You still haven't gotten around to calling him, huh? It's just gonna get more difficult the longer you put if off, sweetie."

"...I know," he replied with a solemn look, still not moving his focus off the desk. "-It's been so long, and I've never apologized to him for all the hell I've caused, not _once_. It just feels off to call him out of the blue like this." he went on to say, and she knew he was distractedly serious when he didn't snicker at his own wording.

"Megs, look at me." She grabbed his shoulders to turn him around on the swivel chair. He let out a little grunt as he attempted to look anywhere but her eyes, knowing what was coming next.

"Look at me," she said more sternly, placing her hands on the sides of her hips. He finally looked up to her eyes and couldn't help but lovingly stare; they would change a slight shade depending on her mood. This time they were the color of blue frost, which meant she was serious but still complacent.

"Do you know how much I love your eyes, Miss Ritchie? I can tell what you're feeling just by gazing into them." he said as he took both of her hands in his and kissed them, not breaking eye contact.

"Nah-ah mister, you're not changing the subject that fast," she replied with a chuckle, the blue in her iris' darkening with each laugh. She took his hands and brought them around her waist, having him resting on her stomach and looking up to her from the chair.

"I know it's hard, I mean remember fourth of July? I was a nervous wreck, I didn't know how my parents would take it and, well, I still can't get the firework stink out of my clothes but we were able to get through it. The firemen on the other hand sure weren't happy that day," she finished, laughing.

He grinned from ear to ear, remembering how he wanted to impress everyone with a spectacular firework show, but wasn't counting on the family feud that happened immediately after set up. "And now we also know your brother can't handle _yee-ay-ger_ bombs, whatever in ev-uh gods name that is," he said, catching himself. He was still trying to get used to lessening evil in his banters.

They stared at each other, the smiles slowly fading. "I'm just worried it's a little too broken for even _my_ capabilities to be able to fix it. And I'm the genius who can fix _anything_."

"Sweetheart, you don't know how broken it is unless you actually _try_ to put the pieces together," she said softly.

 _Mercy on me, her intellect. God, why does she have to be so damn perfect?_

He nudged his face into her stomach as she held the back of his head. Letting out a deep sigh he turned one ear to listen to her heartbeat from within.

 _If not for me, I'll do it for you-_ he thought to himself. "Okay. I'll call him."

"I'll be right over here if you need me," she motioned to the sofa. "I might need a little _siesta_ after all that pasta Minion made."

"Well, you asked for Alfredo."

"Yeah, but that didn't mean 'Hey, why don't you pull out the pasta book and see how many variations you can make?' I mean, sweet Jesus, a couple pounds total would've been enough," she mumbled sleepily.

"Again, it was _your_ idea to gift him that  Cooking Club of America set for Christmas."

She let out a grunt as he followed with another quip over his shoulder, "That's what you get for showing him kindness!"

He watched her waddle over to the sofa, her small stomach popped out comically as she exaggerated by bending her back further than necessary. She winked out as soon as the TV was switched on to the HSN channel, the gentle chatter lulling her as white noise.

His soft smile was hard to shake off; she always found a way to make light of dark situations. Whenever he felt lost or backed into a corner she always gave a guiding hand.

 _If not for me-_

He tapped the screen to make it turn on, a number frozen in mid dial as one digit was missing to complete the call. He tapped the last number and placed the cellphone to his ear, hearing the phone make a chime to confirm connection followed by the dull _trr-trr-trr_ of the ring back tone.

A small bead of sweat fell down one temple, even through the slight chill that the lair produced; it was the middle of a winter storm outside anyway, as he had no immediate reason to sweat.

 _Must be all that pasta my body is trying to digest at once-_ He tried to deceive himself.

He let out his breath in one big exhale believing to be off the hook for the call when the ringing stopped abruptly and was replaced by a heavy but weary voice.

"Hello?"

 _Why did he answer he never answers on the first call its so late why isn't he asleep I should just hang up and why did I do this again ohmyheathens I can't continue like thi-_

"Ollo," he heard himself say, his voice betraying the speeding thoughts running through his mind, even though it had only been a mere two seconds in between the response. To him it felt like he was on a caffeine rush and on a depressant at the same time.

 _But you don't do any variations of drugs, remember the last time you tried to drink a High Ba-_

"Megamind?" the voice said questionably, sounding suddenly smaller and weaker somehow.

He realized he hadn't inhaled yet and struggled to calm his breathing over the phone, not wanting to sound like a brute asking for a ransom.

"Hi John," he responded to the wardens voice, amid the obvious confusion over the call.

"It-It's been so long. I-How did-How've you, uh-heh, wow, how've you been?" the voice said with a falter, trying to string together coherent words over the apparent shock.

"I'm good, I mean, _we're_ good. Roxanne is resting behind me. She's, uh, been pretty busy these past few months."

"That's good, good to hear," the warden said, trying to regain composure through the line. "And I've noticed. She's being doing quite a bit fronting for your established 'community relief' programs. She's always been talented in being the voice of reason hasn't she?"

Megamind let out a chortle in agreement _. Boy, does she sure have a voice._

"How's, er, your faithful fish doing? Trying to keep up with all the changes so far?" John went on, intending to keep the conversation going as long as he could.

"Minion's been doing swell. He absolutely loves having someone else to care for other than me. You know how protective and clingy he can be sometimes," he said with content in his voice. "He's always been the nurturing kind, you can imagine the flips he did inside his bowl when we gave him the news."

"What news is that?"

"Oh, uh... Well," Megamind continued, his voice filled with nervous elation. "Roxanne's pregnant."

"...That's, my god, Blue...," what he thought was revulsion in the wardens voice was actually overjoyed disbelief. "I can't, express how happy I am for the both of you."

Relief flooded through him, considering he had no idea what he assumed John's thoughts were filled with at the moment.

"-I didn't even know you guys were _that_ settled. I mean, when did the two of you get hitc-"

"Oh, no, we didn't," Megamind cut him off mid sentence. "We, sort of, Ee-loped. Roxanne figured we wouldn't have much going for us when it came to the wedding. If we even uttered a word of a companionship between us, we were faced with despondency and malevolent glares."

"-Sure, when it came to being the hero this city needs and the devilishly handsome face to lead the way oh boy bring out a parade there's no stopping him go right on ahead mister Megamind. But if there is so much as a possibility that a blue freak from another planet even _thinks_ about copulation with one of our fellow human women," he sucked in his breath through gritted teeth, eyes shut with one hand pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Off with his head," he muttered.

 _He's still faced with scrutiny, even from his own fellow civilians after all that he's done to prove himself-_ John thought briefly. _Sometimes, even my own human race disgusts me._

"Blue," he winced at saying his worded endearment so closely to being disclosed as a self loathing insult, but not hearing any sign of a retort, he trod lightly; "I wish I could say 'I know how you feel'. I wish I could change their views, their opinions. To take away the pain others have caused you throughout the years," _including myself_ he almost added. "I wish-"

"Yeah, and what good has 'wishing' ever done for me?" Megamind snapped back.

"Exactly," he interjected. "I'll always have a stand by your side when these situations arise, but I will also stand back and hope you take it like the man I know you are. Don't you ever let anyone tell you who you can't be, or do, or make, or _achieve_. I know you're better than that. _Higher_ than these, pitiful intellectuals," he said, hoping to get inside that big head of his. Anyone else and they would've shut down by now, but Megamind wasn't just anybody.

The tension was high strung between them, and Megamind still hadn't moved his hand off of his nose. Tracing his fingers up his forehead and across his left brow, he finally rested on his temple and started making smooth, small circles to circulate the blood pooling from the stress.

"I figured, being the show off you are, you'd throw the biggest celebration this world, or at least this side of the nation has ever seen. Rubbing it in all the eligible bachelors faces the prized heart of Roxanne Ritchie finally being yours," John went on, happiness evident in his voice.

"Well I didn't want to do off with the ceremony entirely as I knew how meaningful it was to Roxanne, so I just proposed something a little more, private."

* * *

 _"It'll just be for the weekend, Roxanne, the city can handle itself for three days," He prompted, putting the last of his clothing into the luggage. He watches her pack her case as well, not exactly sure where they're going or what weather to pack for._

"And where exactly is it that you're dragging me to, again?"

 _"I've told you," he said exasperated, not wanting to reveal too much, "There's this wonderful park I've been looking up for us to visit. I even have a cabin waiting for us. Just pack like you would for spring weather."_

 _"Here, in Michigan?" She replied with a coy smile._

 _"Okay, maybe not here but-oh you know what I mean, miss nosy."_

 _She stretched her cheeks with her smug grin until they ached of a muscle cramp, and continued to pack quickly._

 _Man, when was the last time she had been able to have a calm day off with just the two of them?_

 _...When was her last_ vacation _, period?_

 _Loading their bags into the back of the car, Roxanne relayed the drill if anything were to happen in the city while they were away. Minion kept nodding his head and tried to reassure her that everything was going to be kept under a watchful eye, to just relax and enjoy themselves, they even got a hold of Wayne to help if anything serious were to hap-_

 _"Wait," She interrupted, "Why would you go as far as bothering Wayne to help? Megs?" She turned to him skeptically, him in a frozen crouch behind the trunk as if having been dunked in ice water._

 _DAMMIT MINION THIS IS WHY I CAN'T- "He's been hounding us for some time to take a breather, lest we want to end up like him," he tried to recover, hoping she couldn't see through him as she usually did._

 _When her eyebrows shot up a little further, he edged the envelope a bit, "Unless, you want to take up his offer of that nature retreat down in Arizona like he keeps persisting; camping out in the desert, getting in touch with your inner feelings, sitting around a campfire as he pulls out his guitar singing on and on-"_

 _"Okay, okay, I get it. Get away while we can," she held her hands up to keep him from going on._

 _She said her final goodbyes to Minion as he walked her to her side of the car and closed the door for her, still chatting through the rolled down window. Behind the car, Megamind looked over carefully to make sure she wasn't turned in her seat, and placed a smaller bag alongside their luggage, which glowed from all the dehydrated cubes resting inside._

 _Pulling up to the location after a few hours of travel, he turned in his seat to make sure she was still asleep, head resting against the glass. After being satisfied that she was, he stepped out the car and cupped his hands around his mouth._

 _"Daddy's here!" he sing-songed and through the trees came a series of "Bowg-Bowg's" as three brainbots hovered into view, each scrambling over the other for their creators attention._

 _"Ah-ah! No," he wagged his finger at them, calming them down enough to give them directions._

 _"Now remember, this is a surprise for, Mommy, so go ahead and take this," he said, propping open the trunk and handing the luggage off to the bots, along with the extra bag containing the cubes, "And try to stick as close to the plan as we talked about."_

 _After a few minutes of affirmation, and careful placement of the car to get the best view of the lake for Roxanne to wake up to, he listened to her steady breathing and stared at the rippling water, still in disbelief that he even made it this far._

 _She stirred and took in one long inhale before stretching her arms out, a sure sign she was waking up, and he smoothly turned off the car and reached for his belt, making it seem as they had coincidentally just arrived._

 _"Hey, sleepyhead, we're here."_

 _She sleepily looked at him through drooping eyelids that immediately shot up once she saw their view from the car._

 _"Oh, my, Megs..." She said breathlessly as her hand shot up to cover her gasp but fell short under her chin, fingers curled._

 _They both got out and strolled to the lake-shore, taking in the beauty of the private beach ahead of them; There was a multitude of trees surrounding a modest sized lake, backed by a steep carve of mountains that encased the water and made it that more personal for the two to feel alone. They stood hand in hand, when he pulled her steadily into the woods, trying to get her to pry her eyes to see what he had slaved away for them._

 _To the side, and fairly high above the ground, was their "cabin" which was in fact a tree house. Three of them actually, suspended inside the fir and pine. She swallowed hard, biting back tears when he pulled her onto a platform directly underneath what seemed to be the main section of the cluster. Tapping a foot onto the tree trunk, it lifted them up to the lodge and gradually gave them a better view of the surrounding, until nothing but the vast expanse of trees was covering the horizon._

 _He guided her into one of the adjacent huts and told her she can take as long as she needed, and he would wait outside when she was ready. He reached into the closet to pull out two garment bags, one with "MM" embroidered, the other with "RR" he placed gently alongside her on the bed and walked out. Still too stunned to wrap her head around what her boyfriend had set up for them, she walked up to the window to think the situation carefully. With a huff, she pushed away from the window sill, gazed down to the bag and picked it up with both hands. She proceeded to shrug off her clothes._

 _"Megamind?" she said, so quietly he almost would've missed it hidden inside the wind blowing._

 _He jumped slightly, doing a double take over his shoulder to watch as she stepped from the shadow of the bedroom door frame. The sun was setting and the rays seemed to make her violet dress look plum-colored. Black lace hung off one shoulder where it connected the front and back of the bodice and ran down half of the dress to the floor. The fabric clung to her shape and opened out right above her knees, with a slit running down her side giving viewing freedom to her legs, and he couldn't help but eye her from head to toe in astonishment._

 _You really outdid yourself this time, Minion- Megamind thought to himself, making a mental note to thank his ichthyoid friend when they got back home._

 _She noticed he had a matching tie on his tuxedo to the same shade of violet of her dress, and couldn't do anything but take his hand silently as he walked her over to the other side of the tree house, paper lanterns lighting the way through the pergolas, her eyes big and wide at the wonder land he so delicately put together for her._

 _The last building was more of a gazebo, where he somehow strung all of their pictures, sketches and scribbled notes together from different heights to the domed roof. Flowers, fabric and candles surrounded them while her mind ran endlessly with thoughts ranging from "Where did he find the time?" "How did I not notice what the most amazing man in the world, hell, the GALAXY, was doing for me?" to "Oh my god, are those Columbines? How did he..., he knows they're my favorite," as tears welled into her eyes._

 _"Roxanne," they turned facing each other as he took her hands in his, "I, I can't convey what you mean to me, how much you mean to me, how much of my_ _ **life**_ _you've affected since that fateful encounter all those years ago. I, I-I'm having trouble with this, it's so hard to explain, to put in words and so, uh, damn, why is this so hard-why do you have to look so stunning?" She giggled as the smartest man she knew, who always seemed to have the right thing to say at any time, was at a loss of words._

 _With a sigh, he went on to word what he could, "I don't know how I made it so far without you by my side, but one thing is clear as crystal to me now," he reached out for one of the brainbots to bring a blue velvet pillow holding two rings. "I'll be damned if I try to go on the rest of my life without you."_

 _He took her left hand and slipped the thin silver band on her finger, a row of bright emerald green gems wrapped around the middle. The ring also seemed to be pulsating rhythmically from a glow on the inside of the band._

 _"Why is it, lighting up?" she asked, a puzzled look on her face._

 _"Whenever the rings are near," he motioned while bringing his left hand close as she placed his ring on, his having light blue gems instead, "They light up, and when they separate," he continued demonstrating, pulling his hand and taking a farther step back as both the rings dimmed slightly._

 _She watched in amazement as the gems died down, but noticed the pulsating didn't stop on either ring, and they both had different rhythms to them._

 _"And whats going on inside?" She lifted her hand up to see the light glow against her skin._

 _"That, is my heartbeat," he motioned to her ring. "And this one is yours," he pointed to his own, cradling his hand as if holding something fragile made of thin glass._

 _Taking a step back towards him, she delicately placed her hands on either side of his face and brought their foreheads together._

 _"I love you, so-so very much Roxanne Ritchie. I still amaze myself at how much fer-ver I can hold for you."_

 _"I love you too, sweetheart. I love you with all my being."_

 _As she opened her eyes she noticed the gems in her ring matched the distinct shade of his iris'._

 _Looking down to his ring she realized that was her eye color on his finger._

 _She held up her hand and watched in amazement as the gems started to brightly light up again._

 _"You do know you are also the most amazing person that has ever come into in my life?" she said, and placed her lips on his before letting him reply._

* * *

He looked back to her snoring softly on the sofa, glowing ring pulsating on her hand as it rested against her growing tummy.

"She's my everything. She's already given me so much, and is willing to give me more. With a baby on the way, and all this hero business, some of the threats I've been receiving, I,... I-I," he struggled to get the words out, his throat clenching down on him.

He gave a hic as he whispered, "Dad, I'm scared."

A grab bag of emotions clenched at John's heart. _"I don't need you, and I never will"_ he heard a young blue say in the far reaches of his mind. _But that was so long ago, god has it really been nearly two decades since he stormed out on his own?_

Not so long ago, having the opportunity to speak to Megamind seemed so out of reach and yet here he was, calling him in the middle of the night and not only that but calling him **dad**.

"I know son, I know it's hard. And it'll seem like it'll get harder over time but no matter what, you have to pull yourself together for that kid. Remember, it's not just your life on the line out there anymore."

He thought back to the birth of his first son, Daniel. He seemed so impossibly small in his hands, since he was born a month short of a full term. He felt so helpless watching his little boy struggle to breathe on his own, tubes going every which way, his skin yellowed because his organs weren't fully developed yet, his head fit incredibly in the crook of his palm...

"I'm sorry. _Oh evil heavens have mercy i'm so-so sorry,_ " Megamind cried out through his hand, pressed against his mouth in an attempt to muffle his sobs.

"I've only ever caused you hell. I've been nothing but defiant, reckless, a failure. I-I've just been a wreck all these years and you were the one who always had to clean up after me, after all my messes," he kept on, not being able to hold back any longer.

"-I thought I was doing my duty, the fate chosen for me, my destiny. How-," he struggled to even his breathing, turning over slightly and the sound of Roxanne breathing loudly. She rolled over in her sleep without so much as a creak of the eye.

 _Pull it together, blue,_ he breathed, and turned back into the desk.

"-But now I do realize what I have done. To the city. To my fellow civilians. To you," he finished off with one final exhale.

Silence cut through them, although it wasn't entirely uncomfortable.

"But now you have your whole life ahead of you, and not only that but _two_ people to look after. If anything, I don't see that as a failure," John went on, trying to comfort his son who was obviously in shambles over this.

"Yeah," a breath of relief going through him, "although I'm not entirely sure about naming her Megan, I think Roxanne brought that one up just to get under my skin."

A laugh came through the earpiece, and Megamind himself smiled; He didn't mind the term of endearment Roxanne had given him, but personally he wouldn't bestow it as a _name_ to their child.

"-So instead I offered Megaera, mindful of her Greek ancestry."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Megamind."

"I, I know. But I also wanted to give her a little of me-I mean, _my_ ancestry. So we settled on Xa'demori," he said, the name rhyming with ceremony.

After a brief spelling he went on to explain, "I've talked it over with Minion. He agreed that the word my parents left me off with was Xa'demori. In our language, it roughly meant ' _Not even the force of the universe can stop what true fate holds for you.'_ I thought it only be best If we named our pearl after the force stronger than fate. But she's not gonna be bald like daddy, thank Ee- uh, god. She's going to have dark hair, as her mother's. Her eyes, oh, I can't wait for her to open them, I got a few samples of green and blue from the test results, but they can be hazel for all we know," He said excitedly.

 _Well it IS Megamind,-_ John thought to himself _-it wouldn't have taken him long to figure out how to check the baby's genetics. I wonder if, he found a way, to check the skin-_

"And her skin is, well..."

Exactly what he was afraid to hear.

"-Her skin has a light tinge of blue, but not cobalt like mine. She'll have a healthy, normal childhood. At least, she _should_ be able to..."

John could almost feel the desperate relief come in through the phone.

"We've even gone off and started getting the nursery ready," he continued, not letting the depressing thought weigh him down, "although its just half of our bedroom. We don't want to leave her alone for the first few months. Roxanne insisted we start baby proofing everything, and the poor brainbots are practicing flying around with zip ties on their jaws and claws, oh how they _whiiiine_ ," Megamind droned off, going about choosing colors and their brief argument on what would be considered "appropriate" baby toys.

John couldn't help but smile into the phone. Here he was talking to who was previously known as the state's most dangerous criminal about whether or not spikes were a suitable aesthetic to add to rubber duckies.

"I told her I would dull them down, I mean it's _all_ made out of rubber for crying out loud!"

"Megamind, hearing you getting so worked up over it is making me believe you really are a changed man," the warden said jokingly into the mouth piece, but was only greeted with silence.

"Blue?"

"I swore I would never put her into the position I have always been myself," he heard his son mutter. "-I refuse to refer to her by anything other that _her, the baby_ or even _Megaera_. I don't ever want someone to mention her by anything less than being a person. She can't go through what I did, she can't," Megamind went on, almost pleadingly into the phone.

"No-nononono Blue you don't understand, I meant "it" as in the duty as a parent, not _it_ as in your daughter," John tried to clarify. He was relieved when he heard the soft "oh" reply.

"I'm sorry. It's just, ...everything I went through, all that pain and-and loneliness. I don't want anyone to go through that. _Especially_ not my blood."

"I know son, I know. I've always had your back on that one."

After a momentary pause, John tried to steer the conversation into lighter territory again, "So,What if the baby was a boy? Still against Megan?" he quipped.

"Ha-ha. No, actually... Roxanne isn't against using _Parker_ as a middle name," Megamind went on, hearing the wardens breath catch in his throat. "Jonathan Parker Amlin Ritchie. Has a nice ring to it, no?" he went on through the silence.

"-She wanted to fit in something Scottish but also wanted to abide my name, and wouldn't you know it, _Amlin_ is close enough to _Amhlaidh_ , at least they are for her anyway, I've told her the pronunciations are _waaay_ off, something about being some sort of derivative of _Olaf_ , yada-yada anyway it means "ancestors descendant", and we couldn't find it more fitting," he finished off, distinct humor in his voice.

John was still trying to process the thought of having a grandson named after him. But eventually he couldn't help the soft sobs that escaped from his mouth.

It was Megamind's turn to comfort the warden.

"At least someone is happy," he murmured. "Even as their only son wastes away as a single alcoholic accountant, Roxanne's parents still aren't thrilled with the concept of us being together. Mind the fact that she's afraid of what their reaction will be when they hear of our girl."

"You, you haven't told them yet?"

"...No. I don't think they've even bothered to notice our wedding bands."

 _Well screw them,_ he thought. _They're outright damned fools if they can't see the beauty of this._

"Dad, I, uh. I want to thank you, and again I'm sorry-"

"No, Megamind, it's okay you don't need to..."

"-No dad, I do, I do need to thank you , and I do need to apologize, and I also should tell you that I lov-, I.." - _come on chicken shit. Say it. SAY IT_

"I love-"

"I love you too son." John wiped at the moisture building on the sides of his eyes again.

With a cough, he excused himself, and repeated how happy he was to hear from him, and how joyful it was to him to hear that they both were doing so well.

After they bid their farewells, Megamind making a promise to send copies of the sonogram over, John had one final request.

"Blue, be good to Roxanne. I know I don't actually have to say it, but, there may be times were it gets trying, and things get tense," _-and you say things you regret and wish you could take back-_ "But always be _good_ to her. Take care of everyone. And Blue, ...be good to yourself."

He hung up the phone and placed it back to the middle of the desk, hands hovering on the sides, afraid that if he touched it everything that just happened would somehow be undone.

He turned on his chair to face Roxanne, still asleep on the sofa, the ring pulsating on that beautiful roundness of her stomach. He thought he saw Megaera give a little kick under the nightgown, and his heart gave out for the child.

 _Their_ child.

 _If not for me, I'll do it for you._

* * *

 **Thank you for reading my first ever written fanfic.**

 **I've always had some stories floating around but never had one so visually stuck inside my head, sometimes keeping me up at night, mentally adding to it.**

 **I'm not sure If I want to continue on making Megamind specifically because, well, I moon over other fanfics and stories too, you know, but I do have a few other ideas floating around if you're willing to lend an ear (or should I say eye).**

 **A few notes I wanted to pass on;**

 **I would like to thank Ladyspock7 for giving me the inspiration of continuous use of their names, I just liked them so much and couldn't find anything more suitable. I almost changed Megamind's "Amlin" but thought it would be cute if Roxanne turned the tables on the pronunciation, throwing caution to the wind.**

 **And making a quick look back I just realized I coincidentally chose "Daniel" as Wardens son's name, and its the same "Dan" that Ladyspock7 uses. Didn't want any inconsistencies!**

 **I felt since everything usually has a meaning behind it, I wouldn't let things like the eyes and names get away with them. With heavy consideration I went through countless sites to look up the meaning behind the names, seeing as "Roxanne" is Greek and "Ritchie" is Scottish, that's where her needs to connect to the cultures comes from.**

 **Megaera is an obvious stem from Greek mythology, meaning "fury", "to grudge" and even "the jealous one", and she might end up being a little sassy because of that, but her parents hold it to their hearts that "Meg" is the proper nickname, meaning "Pearl".**

 **John, or Johnathan are obvious biblical names, John meaning "Jehovah has been gracious" and Jonathan having "Yaweh has given" in Hebrew. Parker in old English simply means "Keeper of the park" which I thought was a charming fit for the Warden.**

 **Amhlaidh is actually of Scottish Gaelic and is pronounced "ow-liv" hence Megamind being annoyed that for once, Roxanne is the one overseeing their pronunciation.**

 **During the woods scene, I was trying very hard to come up with a location that would be suitable to romance Miss Ritchie in, and seeing Michigan has wondrous parks (that** **do** **have mountains, might I add) and the comment she made of riding in the park with her mother, it would be an obvious fit to Megamind to take her where she could be completely submerged into nature.**

 **Looking up a list of flowers I made back in middle school (I had a very peculiar selection, Erlicheer, Spraxia, Hyacinth?!) I manage to settle on the delicate yet saucy Columbines, and you should've seen the way my face lit up when I realized with a quick search that they grow wildly in Michigan, making Megamind the hero to not have to relocate so many flowers out of their habitat (I know, hippie talk, but it might actually matter to Roxanne seeing the nature lover she is).**

 **The rings came from the idea of two that actually exist. One lights up when your spouse is nearby (with their ring on of course) and the other has and app you have to patiently wait to load, and make sure your ring is charged, and ugh knowing Megamind he would've found an easy way around them to make it that much easier for them. You know how he is with waiting for things to load. And of course the eye color in the rings. I just know If my significant other had a visually striking eye color I would want to have any glimpse of them through my day. I don't know I guess i'm a sucker for that whole "eyes are the windows of the soul" verse. Call me a sap.**

 **Alright, I was up a solid 16 hours hammering this story out, and I'm so glad I did.  
**

 **Now off to sleep!**

 **Ooo Ooo! Don't forget to leave any helpful comments/reviews!**

 **I embrace criticism y'know!**


	2. Babies and Bathwater

"Megamind, this is not what it means when someone is having a "baby shower", and is that what you've been doing this whole time in the lab?" Roxanne questioned, staring down at the miniature standing shower that barely reached knee height.

They were in the process of arranging a "welcome home" party for Megaera in the guise of a baby shower.

At least that's how it read in the invitations she had sent out to those who weren't immediately aware of the baby's presence in the world. It was pretty hard for them to come up with a way to introduce the little bundle to friends and family, besides those who were aware of Roxanne's obvious sudden weight gain.

"Then what is the purpose of this "baby shower"? Because trying to have a shower seems impractical without having a proper hygienic station constructed," he asked, hands fidgeting with the small knobs and seat. "Look, I even made it adjustable!"

Switching Megaera from one arm to the other, Roxanne explained with a smile as she straightened out the side of her Hepburn dress, "Honey, usually we throw the party _before_ the baby is born. We just weren't expecting her to, arrive, so soon."

"Actually, it usually happens sooner for his race, right sir?" Minion interjected while hanging up colorful tinsel to the gift table. "We couldn't calculate _how_ much sooner taking in the genomics and DNA mapping, but with a little bit of embryology at least we were able to make an educated guess ahead of time." he continued with a sheepish smile.

One of Roxanne's assistants came into the room with a box of party favors entangled with decorations and set it down on the table with a huff. "Yi-eah, I don't think bursting in during our World Press Day party yelling NOW, NOW ROXANNE! WE HAVE TO GO NOW! Is considered 'ahead of time'," said the noirette, clearly annoyed as she started pulling streamers to hang on the living room's vaulted ceiling before climbing into the basket of a personal scissor lift, her long hair that was pulled tight in a bun starting to undo in strands in front of her face.

With a laugh Roxanne agreed. "Jaime is right. I appreciate you guys going through all the trouble, but I think even with your genius man power,-" she bent over to a still crouched Megamind to kiss him lightly on the head, "-and your creative help,-" she motions to a gleeful Minion, adjusting his pink tie, "-Nothing could have actually prepared us for parenthood."

"Hey, at least we have a decent timeline to go by for next time." Megamind added as he stood and dusted off his knees.

"What is this about a next time?" Roxanne's party planner exclaimed very loudly as she walked into the room, pushing a cart of food and even more decorations while balancing a phone on one shoulder.

"WHAT?" is echoed off the walls as they all look up to Jaime leaning over a rail of the scissor lift extended to the ceiling now, one arm hanging off the side holding a staple gun.

"Nothing, nothing, Megamind is just getting ahead of himself. RIGHT, megs?" She tried to fix the conversation but the deep blush spreading across her cheeks didn't help.

Minion gave a loud, hacking cough as he rushed over to help get things off the cart and save Miss Ritchie by switching the topic.

"Vida! So glad you could squeeze the party in last minute, we'll just need the last of the deco-"

"What, are you kidding me? I said BURGUNDY!" She suddenly yelled, Minion stopping in his tracks with arms extended and everyone else frozen in place, including Vida's workers just outside the apartment front door.

She hung up her phone with a flick of the wrist and placed it inside her coat pocket. "I swear these new temps Ronathan finds me are all useless. And of _course_ , darling, anything for my sweet Roxie.-" she quickly changed her tone of voice going on with her sentence.

"-My, we go back _ages,_ it'd be preposterous not to." She continued as she flipped her unnaturally red hair that hung straightened to her shoulders, handing off a box filled with balloons and a helium tank to Minion to get started on.

"Making us seem a bit ancient with that term." Roxanne muttered with a roll of the eyes.

"Roxie! Look at you, can hardly tell you had a child only a few weeks ago, you look the same since college." Vida said while adjusting her prop glasses and leaning in to give her a European kiss, absent to the fact the comment was more of an insult since Roxanne was her heaviest during her college years.

 _You know I was skinnier in high school-_ she thought to herself sourly.

Holding her at arms length Vida added with a wink, "Halter top Hepburn _and_ a paisley pattern? How daring! Still have an impeccable taste of clothing, I see."

"Thank you?" Roxanne replied, adding a whispered "I think?"

"But the shower!" Megamind bumped in after the two had separated from their conversation. Little Megaera giggled in delight thinking the jumping and hand waving was for her entertainment and in reply he kept swinging his arms around, contorting his face to the little one's amusement.

"Honey its nice and all but not necessary."

"It took me so long just to make it for her, and I even got the spiked rubber duckies ready," he pressed without altering his facial expressions, waving his fingers and eyebrows in unison for the baby's delight.

"You know, the whole "throwing the baby with bathwater" thing, I wanted to get it right." he kept on, still dancing around and not breaking eye contact with the bundle of laughter in Roxanne's arms.

"Megs, that's not how it goes or even _what_ it means." Sometimes it amazed her how naive her supposed "genius" could get at times, and this was a prime example of how far his ignorance could spread out to.

"Is that what this _thing_ is?" Vida motions towards the small shower stall in the middle of the living room, complete with a nozzle head, swinging door and sitting stall for the baby to be held upright properly.

Ignoring the slight look of distaste Vida had, he dropped his hands into Megaera's and finally looked back up to meet Roxanne's eyes. Since she asked him to not run around in his boots, he was a couple of inches shorter in his simple dress shoes and her wearing wedged heels, but he didn't mind. In fact, he was positive she was aware of how it excited him to have her look down to him every once in a while.

"Look, I made it with an aesthetic appeal in mind; It has the proper dimensions to fit the average small hominid, and I even built it with reliable and durable materials so the next time-"

"That's right, this whole "Next time" business." Vida had suddenly cut in, eyes unmoved from the PDA in her hands. "-I mean you just had this child, isn't _one_ enough?" she went on, unaware of the fury staring her down. "Sweetie, age is behind you. You got the whole family thing out of your system, that's great and all but I believe it's time to focus on your future."

Before Roxanne could wrap her one free hand around whom she had assumed was her friend through true and tried times, Megamind held her back with one arm while tossing a hand signal to Minion, assuming she was still running under left over hormones from the pregnancy but not wanting to take any chances of letting her loose.

Minion, without clearly seeing what the hand signal actually read, let go of the balloon that he was currently inflating and knocked over the helium tank itself with a stiff one-handed shove, letting loose all the already inflated balloons tied to it.

Somehow in the process, a small cage containing chicks had opened up, little nearly featherless fowl chirping on and under the cart. Both Roxanne and Megamind had begged Vida not to bring in any live animals to a _baby shower,_ but she kept insisting having a small area set up where Megaera could photo shoot with the birds grazing around would be the height of the party, stating something along the lines of "But a spring baby taking pictures with spring chickens? Come on, you don't want to miss _that_ opportunity, do you?"

With obvious disregard to the parents wishes it seemed she set her mind to make the celebration as lively as possible. And little Megaera was sure getting a kick out of the show.

Jaime lowered the scissor lift to a scene that was borderline chaotic, and from the corner of her mouth proceeded to ask, "Am I missing out on something?"

"Lovebirds over here want to extend the nest." Vida replied after propping the cage back on the cart, not noticing the fire in Roxanne's eyes boring a hole into the back of her skull.

"So let them," Jaime countered. "Even though they didn't actually get to go to a proper hospital like I _begged_ them to, it seems they know what they're doing," she went on, giving a pointed look towards both Megamind and Minion as she walked up to Roxanne's arms.

"And you're the best thing to happen around here since daddy decided to wetire from ewil, isn't that wite? Yes it e-yus," she went on to baby speak as she shook the little ones feet in unison to the giggling.

"Taking Roxanne to a hospital is unthinkable,-" Megamind started as he crossed his arms and raised his nose, "-Those imbecilic troglodytes wouldn't have the slightest idea how to handle a delivery as complicated as hers was. If anything _Minion_ is the most qualified of us all!" he cried out, pointing to his companion as the Ichtyoid was in a crouch, in the middle of picking up the baby chicks from the floor.

"What?" he asked, handful of biddies wrapped in one arm and a couple crying in his other hand.

Vida walked off to help contain the little birds as Jaime straightened out from Megaera's grasp and looked Megamind with direct eye contact. "I know the real reason wasn't because you didn't believe they were qualified." she said, her face a sudden change from exuberant glee to stern seriousness.

He broke first and looked down at a now yawning Megaera, and Roxanne took that as a sign to walk the baby back to the room for a nap. After taking a few steps, Jaime broke the silence once more.

"You're still afraid, aren't you?"

Neither of them noticed, but Roxanne had stopped abruptly in her tracks, frozen from the realization that they still would be under the watchful eyes of the A.O.G.R., whom she had no idea what their principles were exactly or what the acronym even stood for, but was willing to make an bet the A stood for "Alien".

She continued to walk back to the room, in a much slower pace this time while she gently cradled the baby back and forth so to seem as she was trying to rock her to sleep, which of course she was also doing in the attempts to listen in on her husbands worries of their situation.

"They're still watching. I know it. I can feel the ache in my bones... I feared what they would do if word got out that a genetically _alien_ baby was to be born within a few months span in Northern Michigan. I know we put everything at risk for not coming out with the news _before_ she was born. I also feared what they were capable of doing if no one knew the baby existed, that there could've been a baby missing before she even came into light. I-I can't.., she can't be under their watch like I was. I-I won't let them," he sputtered between shuddering breaths as he tried to rub the sting out of his eyes, staring out as the mother of his child walked towards their bedroom to put the young one to rest.

* * *

She stopped outside their bedroom door, thankful for the apartment's layout to have it hidden from the main room by being pushed into the hallway about three feet, giving her more than enough room to lean against the wall and give a little cry of desperation. A choke of anguish.

A tear of hopelessness.

It felt like her heart had suddenly been ripped out and was replaced by a bottomless pit, a void of fear that ate away at her insides, the burn of sickening dread like acid in her stomach. How far were they wiling to go to get their hands on their baby? _Her_ baby, dammit, she carried her for months in _her_ stomach, they weren't just going to cart her away so easily without a fight.

She didn't realize how tightly she had been holding little Megaera until she heard the whimpers come up from her arms. She looked down at the innocent face, something indiscernible shining in the back of her big eyes. She prayed to whatever god out there that she wasn't capable of understanding certain emotions just yet.

She snuggled the baby up close to her own face and gently caressed her small powder blue forehead against her larger, peach-toned fore. In the back of her mind she thought, _There is no force in this lifetime that will pull me away from you._ _No one will lay a goddamn finger on you, love, that is something I'm willing to put myself on the line for._

And as she opened the door and gently lowered her into the bassinet, she couldn't help but whisper out loud, with something close to an animalistic growl rolling from deep within her throat, "But I would like to see them try. Hell, I _dare_ them."

* * *

Back in the dining room Megamind took a shaky breath as he tried to go on.

"She's my everything. I mean, don't get me wrong, _Roxanne_ is my everything too, but the baby, I, there's no, well,..." he stammered as he tried to get the words flowing as he fidgeted his fingers, his breath still unsteady.

"No-no, there's no need to explain. I've known Rox for as long as Vida has, although I'm not sure if _Vida_ has it in her thick skull to remember," she went on, a note of bitterness evident in her voice.

"-And if anything I know she would be the jewel of anyone's life who was lucky enough to have her," she continued, something akin to melancholy noted in her voice this time. She had looked away towards the balloons making their way to the ceiling to avoid eye contact.

From the side of her mouth, she asked him, "What about the others still out there? 'The Doom Syndicate'? How're you so sure you can keep your family safe in here? I mean practically anyone knows where you guys live."

"I, got that covered," he replied evasively. Turning to eye him, Jaime opened her mouth to further question him when she was disrupted by a voice coming from the anteroom.

"Well damn, am I late already?"

Megamind looked over to the man standing in the doorway and let his face light up in pure happiness.

"Dad!"

* * *

"I mean I'm not against unorthodox celebrations, but a baby shower _after_ the baby's been born?" asked John after he settled his gifts on the table set by the back wall, starting to make his way towards the food table Minion had distracted himself with by then.

"We've went over this," Megamind said, waving a handful of chips in the air before placing them in his mouth. "Thee arrived a little earlier than ecthpected."

"Yeah, a whole _four_ months earlier than expected," Roxanne voiced out as she walked towards the eating area. "-and sweetheart how many times did I say not to speak with your mouth open?" she added, wiping away at the crumbs that fell on his grey turtleneck.

"Thorry," he replied, smug grin spread through his mouth full of crisps.

"Wait, so it had only been, _eight-seven-six..,_ FIVE months?" Vida asked after having come in from overseeing the rest of the decorating going as planned, using her fingers to visibly count back the months.

"Oh soo good! What's the square root of 16?" Jaime asked in a patronizing tone of voice, and the combination of irritation with an underlay of a puzzled look hinted that she actually took a moment to think that one out, and Megamind had to bite his cheek to stifle back a laugh.

Elbowing him sharply in the ribs, Roxanne went ahead and added, "Yeah, during the Christmas party, I was barely eight weeks even as I seemed to be so much further along."

"That's why Sir arrived in that rickety space-pod his parents built us," Minion interrupted, holding a plate of Ladyfingers. "-Seven Weeks is Just under the halfway point for the Me'gwa race, so time was pretty short for them when the planet started to veer towards that black hole, they essentially cut corners to be able to put together a proper shuttle for him. I mean us," he stated nonchalantly.

"Anyone care for some?" he asked as he raised the dish slightly with a smile, ignoring the open mouthed stares everyone was giving him, and _especially_ the seething look Sir was now practically spearing him with.

"Just rest it on the table with the others, Min, and _why_ hadn't you told me this before, Megs?" Roxanne asked in one fluid motion of directing Minion back to the snack table and turning to face her husband with a look of concern.

"Is that why it looked so badly pieced together, blue?" John added in.

"-I mean, I wondered. You were always so good at making something out of nothing, and I guess I should've questioned it a lot more than I did back then, why that little pod looked so bent out of shape when I had heard rumors that the Scott kid arrived in a gold and suede-lined shuttle."

Megamind nervously kneaded his fingers together before going on, not really sure what to say but wanting it all out while he could say it. He knew the moment would come when he had to put his personal history out in the open, explain what lead from him being on his own humble blue planet in the loving arms of his parents, to falling out of the sky of an alien planet from his own inside a bent up home-made aircraft.

"I was a bit of a surprise to my parents. Generally in my race, one didn't, ahem, _consummate,_ so soon into the marriage for we we're a highly fertile race, and it usually wasn't done unless deemed extremely necessary. For part, we had-ah, other, methods of, of-eh showing, uh.., affection." he progressed as he tried to hold the blush that was threatening to bloom from his throat to the very tips of his ears.

Roxanne was much better at hiding the mutual emotions felt at the moment since he had eventually figured how to share those _other methods_ with her; being as they weren't from the same race it hadn't seemed achievable at first, but he didn't want to make it apparent that they had made it possible.

He cleared his throat out and let out a heavy sigh before going on. "My parents had been together for years, it's usually customary for my people to test their relationships before taking their oaths to bond their _Otur'lek_. I guess here the best comparison would be to a human's soul."

He had to pace his breathing. His heart felt as if it was lodged in his throat, threatening to choke out the words he still had left to explain. The blood roaring through his ears was making it hard to hear himself and make sure he was being comprehensible.

"There was a civil war that had been ongoing for decades, always faltering, going in and out between peace and fighting. It was always strained to the point of fallout, but, well.., someone had gotten a little power hungry as another war broke out with our neighboring planet Me'hi-tro. Assuming nothing extensive could occur, my parents decided to bond. However after tensions grew tighter throughout the years, steps were taken to ensure the Me'gwa bloodline survived when it was apparent that there was no turning back to the peace loving quadrant we once were. Things just ended up getting substantially worse when someone in the militant sector figured how to harness enough energy to collapse stars. After a few test runs they thought the would be able to erase the neighbors, so someone aimed for the big red planet next to us... and hit our sun instead."

He didn't dare look up to anyone. He just stared down at his drink in hand, tossing the liquid back and forth while he watched it slowly melt the ice along. The silence was on the point of being ear shattering when there was a steady knock on the front door and all three helping hands said something corresponding of "I'll get it!". Minion, Jaime and Vida scrambled to fight over the door-knob and properly escort the guests in.

Both Roxanne and John stood by either side of Megamind, she wrapping her arms around her beloved in a silent embrace as his father patted his back in an equally muted gesture of compassion. She held him at an arms distance and ran a thumb across his eyes that threatened to cry, and he leaned his cheek into her palm as he held up a hand to place over hers.

She gave him a light but sentimental kiss before walking out of the dining room to greet the guests in the foyer and get the start of the party going. He turned to face his father with a composed look, but the softness that faced him almost made him break again.

He had slumped in a disillusion when he was suddenly shaken by John's big hand placed on his right shoulder, Megamind looking up to his comforting face. They stood still for a moment, before returning the awkward gesture by placing a responding arm to John's right as well. They continued the motion until both of their hands were on each others shoulders, shaking one another, lightly at first but intensifying slowly until they were rocking with uncontrollable laughter.

From through the foyer, "Hey little buddy. Hope I'm not interrupting with my timing," was heard coming in, loud and booming.

They both looked over to the door frame as Wayne walked in, wearing his boy scout polo cardigan with corduroy khakis while holding up a basket full of bath toys.

"That would go great for the baby tossing!" Megamind beamed as he reached over.

"No, Megamind, NO baby tossing!" was then heard coming in through the apartment's vestibule.

* * *

Everyone settled in, empty plates of food resting on laps and covering the dining table, small chatter in the corners of the room, Roxanne dancing in the center while swinging Megaera in her arms.

 _Your friends don't dance and If they don't dance well they're no friends of mine_

Staring out at the dancing duo, John was suddenly hit by a realization and scrambled for his satchel with quiet but repeated "oo, ooh's " as he dug frantically for something that seemed to be lost inside, startling the complacent Megamind sitting alongside him, new drink in hand.

"Aha, here! I can't believe I found it after all these years," he smiled, pulling out a white cd sleeve with a scrawl written across the front of the plastic film. "I found it hidden away in one of your many boxes in the records room back at the prison, I thought you'd might like it back."

As he handed over the sleeve Megamind was finally able to read the word on the cover. _MOOG._

Moog? He thought to himself questionably before the slow cloud of recognition dawned on him, along with a grin that stretched from one cheek to the other.

"Moog!" he recalled gleefully. He couldn't believe he had forgotten the treasured CD one of his uncles had slipped him when he was living in the prison. The fact that the music on the disc had been made using bits and pieces from computers and synthesizers intrigued the uncle, and he was able to convince one of the guards to let it pass for young blue to enjoy.

He would play it relentlessly to the point where both the uncles and guards would be slightly annoyed by the beeps and chirps. Most of the day he would spend sketching ideas and humming along to the songs he would later learn were actually covers of popular hits.

He jumped up enthusiastically and ran towards the speakers, yanking out the cord connected to the laptop and reconnected it to the radio where the CD was being shoved with the other hand. Whirs and snaps came in quietly through the speaker, and something sounding like a tropical 1950's beat was clearly heard coming in.

Megamind happily took Roxanne by the arms and started swinging both her and their baby to the rhythm of the song. After a while others stood to join in with the dancing, and on the side Wayne couldn't help but chuckle and elbow Minion with a smile.

"I couldn't help but notice,-" he said, his grin turning slowly but still steadily kept on his face, "-that no one from Roxanne's family is here. Is there something going on between them?"

The fish bot turned slightly in his bowl while keeping his gaze on his loved ones, re-adjusting his tie nervously while flicking it back and forth before hesitantly replying.

"I probably shouldn't talk about it. Miss Ritchie might get upset."

Wayne silently considered this. "You still call her Miss Ritchie?" he laughed.

Minion saw the humor in it and also gave a laugh. "Yeah, old habits, right?"

They both went back to silence, staring at the three as a family dancing around on the floor.

"They despise her, you know," Minion finally said, breaking the peaceful quiet in between the two of them as Wayne taken aback for a moment.

"Wha- why? How could they? She's their daughter, I mean, yeah Megamind has put her through some tough times-" and when Minion gave him a sideways glare, he corrected himself, "- alright, _alright_ he put her through hell. The things he's done to her, all the times he's put her in the face of danger just to get to me to continue a pitiful war that was started by our elders, it was ridiculous. It was downright absurd. But we put it behind us, we decided to be the start of what they weren't mature enough to finish. Megamind, um, he's.., a good person,-"

They both looked at the trio stopped in the middle of the makeshift dance floor, seeming to be in a very intimate embrace before separating for Roxanne to go arrange the gifts and Megamind continuing to dance with his baby to an eight-bit version of what sounded to be "Buddy Holly".

With a sigh, he added almost too quietly, "-he's a damn great father. An amazing husband. I couldn't ask for anyone better for my friend. I don't see how her parents could."

"You know, the moment she was born into my arms the world stopped," Minion said thoughtfully while not breaking his stare into oblivion, almost as if entranced.

"-When she emerged, her skin was white, like a blank sheet. Megamind held his breath for so long thinking his one wish had come true; that the baby was born normal," he went on as a sudden pang of grief and guilt shot through Wayne like a punch to the chest, from what he was guilt stricken he wasn't exactly sure, but he listened intently nonetheless.

"-But as she gave her first cries her color started blooming in. Barely noticeable at first, but you could slowly see the blue give way into her skin. It just looks like she's held her breath for too long, nothing major but Sir would take none of it. He was almost heartbroken, thinking that he ruined his daughter by making her the one thing he despised being the most. Different."

Another moment of quietness grew between them before Minion kept going, "-However once I placed her inside Miss Ritchie's arms and Xa'demori opened her eyes, Sir cried like I've never seen before. And Miss Ritchie.., she whispered, 'she's perfect'."

"-She's mine, Mr. Scott. I'm her minion now and I couldn't have asked for more," Minion finished with a solemn look in his distant gaze, but the toothy grin he sported stated otherwise.

They both stood in the corner, sulking momentarily before Roxanne came back into view wheeling the gift table to the center. A small knock coming from the vestibule called Minion back into the moment to go assist while everyone else started to huddle around and watch the couple tear open the gifts, Megamind giving mock commentary on what was inside each package and bag.

Through the laughing Roxanne looked over to the foyer were her smile froze and her eyes cleared.

With a little bit of disbelief she saw her father coming in, bags and packages pouring over his arms as he tried to give the most apologetic smile he could muster.

Megamind stood back, and let the two hold one another in an entanglement of sobs and laughter. He came up once they stepped back from each other and held out Megaera as the prideful grandfather met his kin for the first time, immediately getting lost in the green ocean of her eyes and the giggling smile that knocked the breath out of him as she reached one small hand to pat his salt and peppered beard.

Finally settling down from their emotional high, granddaughter in one arm and daughter in the other, he looked around to the rest of the guests and finally asked, "What the hell is playing over the speaker?"

* * *

 **Alright guys, I guess I couldn't let the nagging plot bunnies eating away inside go to rest so I went ahead and tried to crank this one out as fast as I could. I found it a little bit harder to work with this chapter because all I had to go by was the image of the group of them huddling over a miniature shower, and Roxanne having to explain to Megamind what it meant to throw a "baby shower". I had other things I wanted to add to the story but it just seemed like it would eventually pile up without actually going anywhere. But I will somehow add them in for other chapters, don't you fret!**

 **It was hard for me to calculate the timeline of the pregnancy as accurately as possible (as IF, this is an alien pregnancy we're talking about here...) seeing how a human pregnancy averages 40 weeks total, and Megamind already had teeth at 8 days old, I warped it out to his race having pregnancies that last around 20 weeks, a little bit of adding and dividing and settled on 30 weeks for Megaera to be ready. I almost described her as having the ability to sit up at two weeks old, but decided to cut that, already stretching realism here (HA).**

 **Their outfits are based on what I believed a Nuclear family would wear, mom with a standard Hepburn styled dress, Megamind in a grey turtleneck and lets just go with blue jeans, he still doesn't like to conform too much yet. Of course Wayne would try to look presentable for a gathering, Minion in a pink tie because, Minion. And for the sake of it Warden is in a suit, 'kay?**

 **As for the music, the first song would be "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats; Rhythm of Youth.  
  
The CD the Warden brings in with Moog written on it is from an actual company that makes synthesizers and other machines for the sole purpose of music making. What Megamind is referring to is "Moog Cookbook", a band that got together with permission from said company to use the instruments and make music parodies based off popular hits at the time. I personally have a CD right now in my car, and driving along one day it switched to the disc and it was very obvious to me that Megs would appreciate music made by computers, especially considering the first song on the disc is "Black hole sun" (which is what the three are dancing to).**

 **Sorry, it always seems I make the notes just as long as the story, so I'll cut off here. It's two in the morning and I need _SLEEP_**

 **Again, I'm not sure if I do want to stretch this out, accidentally got sidetracked earlier this week and hammered out half of what would be chapter 5 or 6 if I do go along with this. It was only meant to stop as a one shot.**

 **Reviews are always welcomed, so If you have a comment or feel that something was amiss for this one don't be afraid to let me have it ; )**


	3. The Language Between Us

The first rays of the morning sun peaked in through the silk curtains, one stray ray finding it's way in by a small gap and rested on the eyelid nestled inside a mound of Egyptian cotton comforters. With a squint and a slow stretch, Roxanne took a deep breath as she lazily woke from her deep slumber and rolled over to wrap an arm around the snoring mound facing her.

"Hey. Honey, wake up," she whispered.

When the vociferous mound was still deep in it's stupor, she proceeded again, gently shaking his shoulders.

"Me-ga-mind. Meeegs," she sing-songed as she rubbed her nose across his to try and gently wake him; his snoring still kept an undisturbed tempo.

With a sleepy smirk, she rolled over and pushed her lower half into his, wriggling softly to motion him awake. She heard the soft sigh before a blue arm snaked its way under hers and gently grasped at her chest, enticing a satisfied sigh of her own as they laid near motionless, aside from the small nudges and pokes they teased one another with.

A ragged breath that had dragged across her throat caused her to gasp from desire. She reached behind herself to cradle her beloved in that sweet spot where his neck met his head, the spot she knew would stoke the fire already blazing.

Few words were said, even fewer noises were made; the only sounds heard through the brightly lit room were the rustling of the cream colored linens and their soft panting.

And as quickly the fire was ignited so was it doused when a small weight found it's way on top of the bed, bouncing and stomping on the covers to pull the bodies from their comforting hiding spots.

"Panyo, pachio! donasoy!" a tiny yet high pitched voice cried out in between giggles as a pair of minute hands started to pat and pull at the covers, giving out frustrated huffs when the pair wouldn't give in to being suddenly exposed to the cold air.

"I'm sorry Sir, she's a quick one," Minion said, abruptly appearing in their bedroom doorway inexplicably out of breath. He proceeded to walk into the room to lift the child in one arm and hold his containment unit in the other, mocking the act of rubbing his temple.

"Minion, why are you shaking? You can't _actually_ be exhausted," Megamind questioned as he slowly lifted the covers off himself and bent off the side of the bed to adjust his slippers.

"Physically, no. Mentally.., yes," Minion answered as Megaera started to kick at an attempt to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Sir, she's been at it non stop as soon as your father arrived-" he tried to explain but was suddenly cut off by Megamind's pensive stare.

"John is here? Minion, why hadn't you alerted me earlier?"

"Because I was busy trying to chain _her_ down, Sir!" he whined, Megaera stopping in the midst of her struggle, suddenly interested in the glittery lace her own house shoes was threaded with.

With an swift, unexpected movement, Megaera then twisted herself around in her housecoat, slipping through the sleeves and landed onto her bottom with a soft plop on the bedroom rug. The scurry of her little feet was heard running _away_ from the bedroom at first, "Donasoy! Donasoy!" was then heard coming up from the first floor through the atrium a few short moments later.

"How the hell did she get down there so fast?" Roxanne asked softly as she straightened herself while stretching her arms over her head slowly.

"Minion..," Megamind gritted, giving him a sideways glare through half closed eyes.

"On it, Sir!" Minion responded with a nod of the head and a salute of his hand as he ran out the bedroom, leaving the door wide open.

"So much for our morning cuddle," Roxanne mumbled regrettably while crossing her arms around her chest in a pouted huff.

"Hey, we can still have a few moments," he whispered, lifting her chin up for her lips to meet his.

"Rigardee cheeyun teeyun scatoloin!" came in through the open door alongside hearty laughter and the sounds of other kids.

"You still haven't figured out the gibberish she's been saying?" Megamind looked at Roxanne questionably.

"Hey, don't look at me, _Mega_ mind, I'm not the self proclaimed genius. Besides, you're supposed to be the polyglot,"

"Yeah, and she doesn't seem to be speaking any of the nine I know," he countered defensively.

With a confused look, they both turned to the door as the hearty voice called out, "Hey, are we gonna wait on you two to leave the honeymoon suite, or can we go ahead and rip open some Christmas presents?"

As the realization creeped upon Megamind so did the slow growing grin that was proof of his remembrance of what holiday it was. Christmas. Not just any Christmas, but _the_ first one for his little pearl.

Meanwhile next to him in bed Roxanne paid no attention to her partner's facial expressions as she said "Why don't we let them enjoy each others company downstairs while we catch u-and he's gone," she was suddenly telling herself with a blank face, bedroom door swinging back and forth by the wind drag he created from running through it so fast.

She sat a few moments longer before giving a heavy sigh with a shake of the head, followed by a chuckle.

"Well, that didn't last long," she told the empty room before climbing out of bed herself and headed for the armoire, reaching in for the red velvet dress she bought specifically for this day and setting aside a matching blazer and slacks for him on the chaise. She planned to at least get _out_ of her pajamas before meeting the family awaiting downstairs.

* * *

After a quick wake up shower and a change into proper attire, the whole of the Ritchie-Parker family was surrounding the holographic pine tree in the living room. The colorful ornaments contrasted beautifully against the snowy scene through the floor to ceiling windows that lined the living room wall behind it, showing the whole of the city skyline from the south facing walls.

Between John and his son Daniel, all the gifts that had been piled into the vehicles had been brought in to the living room to be placed around the tree. Meanwhile his daughter Ellie and Daughter-in-Law Gabriella were helping Minion set out the table in the dining room for the Christmas brunch. Roxanne had been organizing the gifts in piles with her father and Megamind had been in charge of distracting the rowdy kids with a pillow fort war.

After everything was settled the mothers came in and declared a peace be brought together soon if they wanted to get down to business of opening the presents, and faster than they could voice their threats the kids had the floor cleared out and sat themselves in a neat little row, legs criss-crossed.

Each of the parents grabbed the smallest gifts under the tree corresponding to their child and walked back to face their kids, some standing, others coming down on one knee to view their little ones at eye level when handing them the gift.

Ellie being the eldest daughter and having the eldest child herself, handed her son a thin but long package, about the length of two pencils, and the young boy looked up at her with suspicion on his face. "You didn't tape two markers together again, did you mom?" he asked cautiously, unable to read her poker face.

"Now honey, what makes you think I would do something like that again?" she countered with a sly smile. He looked down and hovered his fingers over the package. He imagined this year would be the one, but he didn't want to get his hopes up.

 _Mom works so hard for us, the least I can do is smile when I unwrap it._

But as soon as he saw the polished maple under the gold foil his young heart nearly skipped a beat, his blue eyes widening to the sight. _No freaking way-_ he thought as he quickened his pace to unwrap the rest of the pair of sticks he now held in his left hand, the fingers of his right tracing the burnt-in engraving of his name; _Morgan Aleifr Parker_.

" _No WAY!_ Mom, MOM, I-I.." he cried out as his arms wrapped around his mothers knees, still sitting on his legs. Feeling a little overwhelmed with the unexpected emotional outburst her son had given, Ellie patted the top of his almond colored head and looked over to the others with a small smile of awkwardness she felt for the two of them. She knew he would jump over the moon for his gift, she just hadn't figured she would turn into supermom.

She turned him around to face the overly large box sitting on one side of the tree; how he had missed Grandpa John and Uncle Danny sneaking it by him he couldn't quite wrap around, nevertheless he took a running start from his kneed position to what he would assume was the drum kit he had been asking for since he had picked up a few cds he found in a box his father had left behind.

As he tore into the massively size box, Daniel and Gabriella gave each of their daughters a small velvet bag, from which the oldest, Sam, pulled out a silver chain with a gold charm that appeared to be a Celtic knot. The smaller of the two, Nishi, pulled her chain out and it also had a similar looking forest green charm. But after a brief visual explanation they realized they were two puzzle pieces that created an intricate design when laced on top of one another.

"As long as you two have one of these pieces, you will always have each other, understand? You need to trust and depend on one another, no matter what. Samara, take care of your little sister, you'll always be the rock that she can lean on. Nishi.., make sure your older sister doesn't get into too much trouble," Gabriella explained to the two giggling girls as Daniel turned each one around to clasp their necklaces on. Leaning into each other, their black locks curled over each others arms as they tried to piece the puzzle together and look into the design they created, quiet with amazement.

Eyeing her cousins with an anxious stare, Megamind kneeled in front of a bright eyed Megaera as Roxanne stood behind him with one hand on his shoulder and immediately claimed the toddler's attention, her eyes focused solely on the silver foil wrapped box that was so seamless it seemed to be made out of a cubed mirror. Her eager blue-green eyes darted back and forth from the box to her parents, and curiosity mingled with excitement was visibly shining in her smile.

"Xa'demori, my sweet, this.., this is the most important thing you will ever take care of. My father gave me one just like it when I was, eh, close enough to your age. I hope you will be able to put it to good use like I did," he said in a serious tone, making a facial expression she wasn't at all too familiar with.

She was worried because he called her by her middle name in that tone of voice. He only did that when she was in trouble, like the time he caught her flushing the cucumber salad because it tasted yucky, or when she had snuck into his hover-bike tank bag to see what he does at work and wasn't discovered until he reached in for extra pairs of cuffs, while making several arrests during a bar fight. Boy, was daddy _not_ happy that day.

She looked up to her mother in hopes she could read her face, and only saw a soft smile gazing back. Her little eyes went back down to the package held in front of her, and she slowly took it from his hands and rolled it over to find a seam, a gap, _anywhere_ she could open it from.

Twisting both of her tiny palms in opposite directions, she was able to tear the package in one swift motion, revealing a see through plastic box, inside which held a glowing blue pacifier that appeared to be pulsating. The light show of flickers and sparks that went on inside it captivated her eyes. "Gee estas blua, keel me," the little one said barely audibly under her breath.

"This is your binkey. It houses an ionized particle accelerator which can be accessed through the potential energy stored inside that pressurized containment unit. Much easier and stronger in transferring charged particles than my original binkey that used kinetic energy, in my opinion," he said almost matter-of-factly, and as the child's curious face stayed frozen in place Megamind realized he might've be going too fast for the little one to comprehend the mechanics behind the diminutive energy transmitting component.

"Well, in-uh, Lay-men's terms It, it's like a battery. You'll be able to make great use of it come the appropriate time," he simplified, giving her hair a ruffle. She gave a small giggle and reached for the gold ribbon that originally secured the gift box, running it through the loop on the pacifier and wrapped it around her neck as she tied off the end, giving a satisfied nod of her makeshift necklace.

Roxanne and Megamind exchanged a humored look before straightening themselves up and watching the kids coo excitedly over the first gifts. The ones given with meaning and intent, with the purpose of representing what Christmas was about.

Once they had dispersed into the mass of gifts that was left to open, the adults themselves decided to spread out onto the circling sofas to converse as Minion handed out glasses of eggnog and mulled cider. "Minion, mind Daniel. I brought some sparkling cider just for him," Megamind called out from across the room, causing Daniel's face to blush a couple of shades of red but was appreciative of his step-brother's thoughtfulness despite the contrary.

"Thank you, Megamind," Daniel replied with gratitude, raising his fluted glass as a toast to his host sitting across the room. Megamind raised his in response before taking a small sip.

"How long has he been sober now, about four years?" Roxanne whispered into his ear, hardly moving her lips without looking at him directly.

"No, since before Nishi was born, closer to five now," he responded. "I'm just trying to keep an eye on my brother, that's all, he was pretty bad at his lowest point. He forced himself to come out clean when Gabriella revealed she was expecting their second child. She was supposed to be the fresh start in their family, the new beginning-"

"-Hence her name. That's very, wow, I-I don't know what to say. It's, kind of a lot to take in," Roxanne followed his conversation, finally understanding her niece's unusual name but also moved by the story behind the charismatic personality she had come to bond with, not knowing the weight of the luggage he carried on his back.

Meanwhile, John had been standing off to the side of his grandchildren huddled as a group in the center of the room, excitedly shaking and listening in on the gifts surrounding them, trying to give a solid guess what was behind the diverse wrappings and ribbons that made up the rest of the gifts.

He looked over to Megamind who was sitting with Roxanne square in his lap in what he claimed was the "daddy throne" which was just an over-sized leather chair, and as they made eye contact they gave each other a silent nod before looking back to the kids tearing into the gifts with squeals of joy.

"Merry Christmas, hero," Roxanne whispered into her husbands ear before placing a hand on his cheek so she could turn his head gently towards herself to give him a soft peck on his temple, the warming sight in the living room enough to make his chest tighten.

Usually, well _before_ becoming Metrocity's defender, before Roxanne, before having a family other than the Uncles that raised him in the prison, he would always feel lost, confused.., _angry_ , during the holidays. It never seemed fair to him for everyone else to celebrate the one day that was immediately connected to his arrival upon earth. The one day that is supposed to be about giving and loving your family, he never was able to have because it was all _taken away_ from him.

But now, looking out at everyone, that feeling inside him that was so foreign, different from all the other years, was taking up space not only in his heart, but appeared to fill every crevice of his being with something a little more than glee. It felt even stronger than elation.

Euphoric? But it wasn't just love and happiness for him, it was more of a state of being. He felt..,

Nirvana.

 _That's_ the word.

* * *

They were all gathered in the dining room, sitting at the table while the brainbots hovered about, passing around plates of traditional Christmas ham, roasted butternut, and scalloped potatoes but also including not-so-traditional pierogi's, dahi puri, kielbasa slaw and some abomination Minion called a "tater tot casserole" that the kids seemed to be tearing apart whenever it was passed by them.

"Whoa, looks like I made it just in time for some grub," a rumbling voice exclaimed as the man walked into the dinning area, much to the kids delight to drop their grips on the casserole they were eating by the shovel full.

"Uncle Wayne!" was said cheerfully, almost in unison as the hulking man was slammed repeatedly by little bodies to which he started to grunt with combined laughter and kneed himself down to the ground, pretending they were capable of bringing him down.

"Aren't you supposed to be at some Gala your parents are throwing?" Roxanne bantered as Megamind added in "As the backup singer?"

"Ha, and no, they prefer if we have a quiet Christmas dinner," he replied, and when the faces didn't drop their looks of suspicion over the fact that the Scott's weren't planning on throwing an enormous party as they do annually, he quickly added "After the Governors ball."

The little tykes shoved on each other to get to the grown mans arms and pull him aside into the living room to brandish their new toys, clothes and any other gifts they had received, making sure Uncle Wayne was the first to get to experience them.

"Man, I come to hang out with the adults and always end up sitting down at the kids table," he called out from the living room, no signs of dissatisfaction heard in his voice.

Before pulling out any puddings and pies, the parents decided to rest and chat on the table, satisfied with Wayne being the source of distraction for the kids.

"Business doing well, I assume?" Megamind waved his glass towards Daniel and Gabriella, to which they were sitting across.

"Oh, yeah it is. Couldn't ask for more, although I wouldn't complain if another storm were to tear up a few more buildings," Danny had said jokingly, even as his wife elbowed him.

"Honey, the city officials already have a hard time getting the budget together for the previous storm," she warned him.

"It was all in good humor, love," he replied defensively.

"But I can't thank you guys enough for helping us out with the work on the apartment, I know you two usually do work for the city but this was just remarkable, it was so much more than we could've hoped for," Roxanne intervened, waving her hand around the room to indicate the effort the couple had put into designing and building the Ritchie family's large but modest home.

"It's hard to believe this used to be a run down warehouse, if you just show the apartment side of it you wouldn't know it's also half an evil lair," John nodded in agreement, air-quoting his fingers at the word "evil" with a smirk.

Megamind threw a roll at him earning himself a tut of disapproval from Minion.

"It's not evil anymore, just musty and dimly lit," he defended. "And it's one-third apartment. I still need a decent sized lab to work with, you know."

A loud clang of a cowbell and cymbals crashing disrupted the momentary silence as most of the eyes in the dining room rolled at once and toward Ellie.

"Whap?" she questioned through a mouth full of stuffing and a cocky grin painted on her face.

"You know what-" Roxanne quipped, reaching over and lightly jabbing her with the blunt end of her butter-knife, "-who in their right mind gives an nine year old a drum set for Christmas?"

"Hey it's his fault for egging him on after giving him that Rush album," she retaliated after clearing her mouth, aiming her fork over to Megamind.

"Me?! Moving Pictures was the key album he was missing from his collection Declan left behind, not my fault that man had poor taste in music. I mean, four Wham albums? Geez, _one_ is enough. You sure he wasn't trying to mask his sexuality?" Megamind shot back, not thinking through what he said before the words escaped his mouth.

As Roxanne turned in her seat to smack him upside his sizable blue cranium, her father quickly shot out of his seat and claimed he was "gonna go check on the lil' monkeys" before nearly tripping over his own feet to leave the room. He had overheard enough whispered conversations to know where this would eventually lead.

The others turned to Ellie with worried looks, however the lack of any emotion but humor confused them for a moment, and with a scoff she retorted "No, no questioning his sexuality, just look at the mess he left behind when he finally got caught and decided to skip out. The only problem he had was keeping his pants on and his wallet in his pocket. I mean, with such a powerful name you'd think he'd manage his money a tad more responsibly, or at least be able to take care of his child support. And with all those loan sharks looking out for him-"

"They aren't still following you around, are they?" Megamind interjected as both he and Daniel simultaneously pushed away at their surroundings and helped themselves stand up.

"Because I can remind them the reason why they left you two alone in the first place," he went on with a stern look, a coolness brushing off his voice.

"No stop it, both of you sit. This is supposed to be family time," Ellie quickly cut in, raising both hands towards her brothers on either side on the table and looking over through the entryway separating the dining room with the family room where the kids were still making a racket of the drum set.

With a heavy sigh, she looked up to her siblings with pleading eyes and made a swatting gesture with her hands, silently asking them to sit. As both wives gently pulled their husbands down back to their seats, Ellie looked over to her father sitting on the other end of the table, where they both had a conversation through unspoken words.

"Look, things have been tough, I'll be the first to admit it. It hasn't been easy for Morgan and I these past few years. Just when everything seemed to have finally fallen in place for us, I knew we were good, I mean, I _thought_ we were good..," she paused to take in another wavering breath and looked down to her plate where the food suddenly seemed repulsive, fighting back that urge to scream and kick, the urge to throw everything in sight and scratch at her arms until drawing blood.

 _God effing dammit, why, why can't we have one peaceful holiday without dragging in that cheating bastard like a dead horse?_

"I'm not asking for Justice, I'm not asking for your pity, hell, I don't even want any handouts, you've done more than enough for us," she said while still staring down, slowly drawing her face up and running her eyes over everyone, but seeming to make a longer than necessary pause when looking at Megamind to which he looked away nervously and started to re-fold the napkin on his lap, the sudden and jerky movements catching Roxanne's attention from her peripheral vision.

"Just please, _please_ , don't treat us any differently. Don't diverge from the norm. And don't stop being the loving and supportive family Morgan needs, because he's gonna need a hell of a lot of support if he's gonna be doing _that_ ," she finished off, nodding her head towards the incoherent mass of sounds pouring out from the room where Uncle Wayne was still entertaining the young ones.

Those surrounding the table gave out nervous laughter that became more comfortable fits when Wayne walked in wriggling a finger in one ear and proclaiming "I, uh, shouldn't have gifted little buddy that Ukulele before tuning it for her first,"

With everyone coming around more lively and clearing the table for desserts, Ellie excused herself to the washroom and leaned back on the door after closing it gently. She keeled into the counter before gaining composure and hovered over the sink momentarily, her knuckles turning white from her grip over the porcelain.

Looking into the mirror she thought to herself that she can get through this. Push everything aside and just let this be about her kid, for once.

 _Besides, the doctor said it's too small to worry about, people get lumps all the time-_ she thought, the hole in her stomach not filling in despite the feast she just fed herself. She flushed the toilet, shivered the last of the shaking she had, and walked out to meet the others.

* * *

After having their stomachs gutted from the excessive intake of carbs, everyone started to get sleepy eyed and falling around in various locations as the dining room was cleared out between the flying bots.

As they watched Megaera start tinkering with her My First Chemistry Set from the "daddy throne", Roxanne couldn't help but voice what was on her mind.

"What was that look?" she murmured to Megamind, thankful most of the adults were either chatting away or asleep by the fireplace.

"What look? This one?" he asked himself, looking into her eyes with the puppy look he always gave her when she told him to come to bed, usually if he was creating late into the night.

With a half mustered smile she nudged him. "You know what I mean."

His smile also faltered and he looked off to his daughter. "Damn your reporter skills."

"Didn't get far on just looks," she jested.

He took a longer pause than usual, his temple moving in unison with his working jaw.  
She thought she might've crossed a private line he wasn't willing to lead her over and was about to apologize when he spoke again, softer this time.

"It might be obvious that I can get a little overprotective-" to which she cut in a "Really? Bubble-wrap dress ring a bell?" and he gave a snort.

The Bubble-wrap dress was a design he had implemented while Roxanne was still in her early months of pregnancy, to which she refused to wear profusely.

"-Well, to others it might not seem so, and I tried to keep that image long into my, alternate career choice. I didn't want it to be known that I used to have a family other than my Uncles while growing up in the prison, or how we still kept minor tabs on each other during my break-outs. During my visits I would watch over Daniel and get him back in shape if he got too far lost while on another binger, and I had my suspicions when Declan disappeared and Elliane had to downgrade her house to some shabby, condo-" he waved a hand in the air, sneering at the word _condo_.

 _As if a murky lair was any better_ \- she almost said out loud, but scolded herself for mentally interrupting.

"-Even as she swore to our parents that everything was okay, I could easily see she wasn't. _Nothing_ was. I would slip a few bills here and there, in her mailbox, her bag of groceries while on the bus, just to make sure she had enough for the both of them to get by. She was struggling from one job to another, trying to be strong for her little boy who was just starting school himself. I mean, she was always used to taking care of others, but not having someone to take care of her was something new. Undeniably, she must've figured it out by the way she looked at me. But I couldn't just sit back, I mean.., they're my family. She's my big _sis_ ," he looked out solemnly as the girls started pulling out more toys to scatter on the floor.

"Hey, _hey_ ," Roxanne whispered, pulling his cheek to make eye contact.

"It's Christmas. But we all can't be in misery," she said and broke out in hysterical fits when he tried to wriggle from under her while groaning.

"I can't believe you just pulled a Lampoon," he mock-whined.

"And _I_ can't believe you caught that," she teased.

"Hey, since we're in such high spirits and you love Wham so much," Ellie called out from across the room as she tapped her phone which seemed to be connected to the speakers.

 _Last Christmas, I gave you my heart-_ started pouring out to the dissatisfied noises coming from the couple on the single seater.

Megaera jumped up with her Ukulele on hand and started strumming along to the tune, being able to match the notes with a mere half second delay, receiving some surprised looks from the guests.

"You didn't tell me your kid had perfect pitch," John said in amazement, one eyebrow shot up further than the other.

"I didn't know myself," Megamind responded, looking over to the chem set she left behind.

There was chicken scratch written all across the manual, some which seemed to be written over the experiments as corrections, others written on the sides of the pages as notes.

He looked back up questionably to the little girl in blue, as she started singing out "kristnaska, kristnaska."

Wayne had walked up to the couple watching the child in awe and stated how he had to leave to make it in time for dinner. As he kneeled in front of the little one strumming away at her gift, she raised it up to him with cheery eyes and excitedly said what seemed to be a sentence of some sort. "Rigardu, Mi povas ludi!"

"Mi vidas, estas bona. Ludi min al aliay," he responded seamlessly, where both Roxanne and Megamind couldn't help but let their jaws drag on the floor when Megaera paused for a moment in thought, then started strumming away to "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

"What, wait-how," Megamind stuttered, at a loss for words.

"How the hell do you know what she's saying?" Roxanne finally broke in.

Wayne looked up to the confused parents with equal confusion when it suddenly cleared inside his head.

"Wait, you don't understand Esperanto?" he asked.

"And you do? What in gods name is Esperanto?" she answered the question with another question.

"I, uh, use it to communicate with others during my tours," he replied innocently. "It's super easy to learn and she picked up on it so fast I assumed you guys were speaking it with her at home. I'm sorry you guys, I should've consulted with you first," he apologized, a look of guilt suddenly over taking his face.

"My baby isn't a babbling mess," Megamind whispered with a slow growing grin.

"My baby isn't a babbling mess!" he cried out once more before jumping to his feet and sweeping his little girl off of hers, nearly knocking his wife onto the floor. He let out a hushed "Sorry, honey," as he helped her onto her feet, and turned to the little fists banging at his chest with glee.

"Pachio, pachio!" she called out in between bouts of giggles as he snuggled her into his arms. The sweet relief of realization that his kid was growing up to become a genius, albeit a slower one than he was at the same age, was a gift of relief on its own. He put her down to play on the floor with the instrument some more and went out to walk Wayne to his car, turning to Roxanne to give her a quick hug of comfort before heading outside.

He slowed down as they came to the trunk of the vehicle and realized he was far too happy with the knowledge that his daughter was a genius. In fact, it scared him into wondering if that made him a horrible person for not wanting her to be of average intelligence like the rest of the population.

The look of melan-choly was obvious to Wayne, and he grabbed at his friend's shoulders.

"You're not mad that I taught her "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" are ya? I didn't think it'd make you _that_ upset," he confessed.

A stricken look appeared on Megamind's face, and he quickly doubled over in laughter as Wayne joined him after a few moments of confusion.

Their laughter casually faded away until all that was left was the muffled sounds of their feet crunching the snow underneath as they walked towards the driver's door.

"Does it make me less of a person to think little of someone else?" Megamind said, breaking the silence between them.

After a thought, Wayne replied "I know you two didn't think much of me this whole time, and not many people out there did either," causing the former to wince at his words.

 _Well I guess no one could be that dense-_ the cobalt colored being thought to himself.

"But I never let it get me down. I just kept on truckin'. And that gives me the opportunity to surprise those who expect less of me. I mean, I got to teach your kid a language that even _you_ didn't know yourself. And _that_ is satisfaction enough," he finished as a smug grin spread on his face.

* * *

Megamind stood outside a little longer even after the car's glowing tail-lights had long been gone into the cold December night.

He looked up to the snowfall that seemed to emerge from darkness, and followed them down to one of his pale blue palms before letting it melt into his hand and closing his fist around the moisture.

"You doing okay out here, son?" he heard behind him, and turned around to face Roxanne's father with a quiet nod. He noticed John making his way outside as well and straightened himself out.

"Hey, uh, Malcolm? Roxanne and I really appreciate all the time you've been spending with us. I know it's more than what you expected, and not something you'd typically be up to. But with the way things have been going for you, well I wanted to apologize-" the young man had been conversing when the older disrupted.

"What are you talking about? You, you mean the separation? Son, I know you're a genius that has his moments, but even _you_ can't be that dim. Tallia and I had this coming for a long time now. A heck of a long time. We could never agree on anything that was thrown our way, and things weren't any easier when the kids were born. She was quick to try an whip 'em up into the molds she had in mind, and when Andrew didn't come out to be the model son she had hope for she put all her energy into Roxanne. Of course it came as a shock when she broke down the news of, well..," the man trailed off, motioning with his hands towards the smaller man in front of him.

"You saw how hard it was for us to accept it. But no one took it harder than her. She had the vision of a perfect little family with perfect little lives. She tried her damnest to cut off all our ties with you two. And I hate to admit it but I was right in that boat as well. But then I started to notice the way Annie looked at you. Those little movements. The way you ran towards her during the firework fiasco,-" he went on, an embarrassed Megamind hiding his eyes to keep from making eye contact.

"-And then I saw the rings," to which the young husband froze and peered through cracked fingers.

"-And noticed how her stomach was slightly larger than the last visit every time you came over. I'd have to be a blind fool to have missed that. That's when I realized what I was willing to throw away. The family I had been looking forward to, growing right in front of my eyes and I was prejudiced by my own. I had to step back for a moment and think my options through, but with the way her mother handled it during the baby reveal I knew in my heart I couldn't keep on. So I set aside all those years I had spent with the love of my life to spend the rest with the star of my universe," he finished, never breaking eye contact with his son-in-law, although he was still watching him through cracked fingers.

The older man patted his shoulders as he walked past him into the warmth of the house, murmuring out an "Evening John" as John let out his own "Malcolm" with a nod.

"Ready to come back inside?" John said, rubbing his hands together and stomping his boots down on the stoop. "How are you not cold-oh never mind, just get in, your wife is worried," he interrupted himself.

"Hey, Dad?" Megamind said so softly John had looked back more in doubt that in assurance that what he heard was indeed his son call out.

 _Do you miss her? It's okay, I miss her too. She would be proud of how far we've come. We're okay, pops, really.-_ he wanted to say, he tried to make himself say, but the calm and collective look on his fathers face and the way his hand wasn't reaching out automatically to his wedding ring anymore made him reconsider bringing out the skeleton in their closet.

"Merry Christmas," was all he could muster, with as big of a smile he could put on.

* * *

All the kids had been tucked into their sleeping bags in the living room, the guests nodding off in various parts of the apartment, the grandfathers keeping a watchful eye over their young in the living room as they winked off on the sofas.

In the bedroom Megamind had just pulled off his jacket and was undoing his tie when he caught the reflection of his beloved on the vanity mirror as she was shrugging off her red dress, eyes drawn to the undergarment lace that ran over her shoulders and across her waist.

Taken by surprise from the hands that suddenly wrapped themselves around her stomach, she let out a breath of satisfaction before he started kissing up her neck and along her jawline.

"You know, I think it's about time we catch up on this morning," he muttered into the nape of her neck, causing her to let out a few giggles from the ticklish sensation.

As they started to rock back and forth towards their bed, a small tapping sound was heard from under their door causing them to stop in their tracks, and soft but sudden came a saxophone through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

 _I feel so unsure, as I take your hand, and lead you to the dance floor-_

"ELLIANE!"

* * *

 **OH GOD IT'S SEVEN A.M. I NEED TO STOP DOING THIS TO MYSELF**

 **But it's so much fun hammering away when I finally get the creative juices flowing.  
** **  
** **Ew, I've never liked that term.**

 **NOW, ON-WARDS TO THE NOTING!**

 **Translations for Esperanto;**

 **1;"Mom, Dad! presents!"  
2;"Presents! Presents!"  
3;"Look at all those boxes!"  
4;"You're blue, like me."  
5;"Christmas, Christmas."  
6;"Look, I can play!"  
7;"I see, you're good. Play me something else."  
8;"Daddy, daddy!"**

 **Now I know what you're thinking. What the hell is Esperanto?**  
 **Well it's an official language that I had picked up on the side a while back, and when trying to come up with a not so common language that might actually be useful in the long run I came back to this one, because it's rooted in Italic and Germanic families, principally Italian, French, German, Yiddish, and English.  
**  
 **I copied and pasted that from Wiki.**

 **But seriously, If it stems from that many languages, then theoretically speaking it should aid in the development in language proficiency, shouldn't it?**

 ***shrugs***

 **I'll be happy to state that I struggled the most on this chapter than any of the previous two, although I can't say for sure if this one will be the champion for "the struggle is real" award.**

 **I don't feel as emotionally connected to this one as the others (even though, in my personal opinion, I put more emotional situations in this one. AH THE FEELS) but feel free to tell me otherwise.**

 **I had to change the rating because of the intro to this chapter, although I feel like it wouldn't fit in if I had them randomly have a curse outburst so the coarse language is off for this one, but I might experiment with the other chapters!**

 **I was actually supposed to make a connection between Megaera's binkey and another gift of hers but again, space and story got the best of me so SORRY ITS GONNA HAFTA COME LATER. DON'T KILL ME.**

 **Oh, and Nishi's name is of Hindu origin meaning "Getting Stronger" which I feel is more appropriate than the previous Nichi I had chosen which is Japanese for "day".**

 **Again, everyone's name has sort of a specific meaning to their personality, and my head is nodding off right now so I can't really go into the details, but I do hope that if you're intrigued enough to look them up. The only ones I can say off the top of my head is Declan and Tallia are names drenched in irony when pertaining to their respective characters (or what we learn from them).**

 **My over exhausted mind thinks these things make sense even though they may not.**

 **Somewhere in there I wrote "Lampoon", which was supposed to be an indirect quote from "Christmas vacation". Just in case you didn't know.**

 **And to the music.**

 **I simply asked my husband what was the most notable band that a kid would have in the rock collection based on the drum skills.**  
 **Without missing a beat he said Rush. I completely blanked out on who was deemed one of the best drummers of our time, and so here's to you, Neil Peart, with sincere apologies.**

 **He also stated that not many people feel that way about Rush and if that includes you I'm sorry. But not by much, Tom Sawyer is pretty effin awesome.**

 **After Deadpool I know many people probably didn't realize the same singer did both Wake me Up and Careless Whisper.**

 **And, well, Wham! was the first thing to pop up in my head as slightly annoying and overplayed.**

 **We're already playing Last Christmas at my job.**

 **To those not being able to note the date, today is 11/07.**

 **I'm going to bed.**

 **Let me know if you love it. hate it, should I stop or keep on truckin'? (heh).**  
 **What's your opinion on Wham! and Bret Michaels?**  
 **Is Sexy Saxophones your thing? I'm curious!**

 **Alright, I'm out.**

 **P.S., As I take note and edit this on 1/11/17, I want to take the time to say thank you, George Michael, for your wonderful music that you bestowed upon us, and may you rest in peace.**


	4. The Ripples We Leave Behind

The mist that hovered over the ground provided ample cover for her to be able to leopard crawl through undetected. It blanketed the area in which she hid in, its thickness practically smothering her breathing.

There was a low hum coming from overhead but it quickly passed over as she stiffened up inside the tall clearing of a brush. It was hard for her to see through the combination of the fog and drenching darkness surrounding her but she could vaguely make out two tall figures off into the distance huddled together.

She held in a breath before proceeding to crawl in the shadows, although her vision was more exceptionable in comparison to the other marksmen on the field. She herself was having a hard time keeping track of how many men were out there through the dense fog, and she had her eyesight measured in at 40/5 visual acuity.

With the silent skill of a serpent on its prey, she circled in on the two men, thankful for the low rumble of gunfire that went off in the distance that momentarily distracted them. She eyed them from the closer shade that she had moved up to before getting on her feet and taking a running jump to catch them by surprise, smacking her self-made gift on the back of their necks and letting the neutralizing yellow fluid flow down to let them know their game was over.

They turned around with their weapons drawn only to be faced with nothing, it seemed, until a small cough brought their attention to the ground where their adversary waved up at them.

Standing at a whopping three and a half feet and 35 pounds, the little girl in pigtails gave out a quick raspberry behind her mask before running off into the tall brush that had concealed her earlier.

The grown men looked at each other for a moment before one said out loud "He was six foot three and caught us while we were running," as the other gave a quick nod of agreement and proceeded to walk off the field, guns raised, to the penalty shack.

Megaera sniggered in the brush after overhearing the men's embarrassment and wiped her gloves free of the paint on a towel she had been carrying around. So far, this made seven players she tagged out without having to pull out a paintball gun.

One was easy enough three minutes into the match; he had been camping out in between two bunkers waiting for someone to walk inside his gun's cross-hairs. She simply walked around him and snapped him in the glutes with a wrist rocket.

With the group of three that had been walking in triangle formation covering each other's back, she tossed in an experimental frag paint grenade that she made over the weekend that consisted of a hard polypropylene shell that encased miniature BB bullets soaked in her team's yellow paint. After removing the striker she plopped it in the gap they left between their backs and took cover behind a tree, snickering the whole time.

The last unlucky target was some poor sap who had come to the aid of the three players, only to be clapped in the back with her hand holding a basic paintball as she brushed past him. She found it to be practically child's play when coming up with different ways to counter their strategies.

Still distracted with cleaning her hands off, her head remained low as she heard the snap and felt a small nudge between her shoulder blades that made her let out a yelp. Turning around with a quick start she fell down on one leg then completely onto her behind before looking up to the player who successfully tapped her out.

With a little dissapointed grunt she slit her eyes up to her opponent through the visor, wiping off the green paint from her shoulders.

"Daaaaaaad!" she groaned, as Megamind removed his mask, hardly being able to hide his amusement. "Snap goes the weasel," he laughed before stepping over her and directly to the clearing where she had tagged out the two men, not realizing he stepped on a pressure plate she had quickly dropped before retreating. The mere moment his foot dropped full weight, he was consumed in a cloud of yellow, and when the paint cloud cleared so did the smug look on his face.

"It's pop. Pop goes the weasel," She snorted before taking his yellowed hand and walking him out of the humid forest towards their car parked off the side of the service road, passing her encampment site to pick up the gym bags full of their equipment in the midst of players loading their guns, changing their load-out and checking their gear to see if it was properly fitted.

"Hey, Bluebird, where ya headin' out?" one of her team players called out towards the duo when they passed on through, to which Megaera replied through her mask "Gotta get home before mommy flies over the moon again. Daddy promised we'd be home in time for dinner tonight, _right?_ " she looked up to her father standing behind her, in the middle of packing up his gear into his gym bag without breaking stride.

He absentmindedly waved off towards them while rummaging through his bag, not making it clear if he was making eye contact through the mask that he had pulled over his face again.

They had a habit of going out to group events as a father-daughter team, and were fond of those that had moderate to heavy cover-up involved. It wasn't to prevent people from staring or turning in fear, but quite the opposite. He didn't want to diverge the enjoyment of the activities by drawing attention to themselves, the proclaimed defender of the city and his little daughter, well known for following his footsteps as the protégé. Hardly any were aware of the fact that one of their own group members was the biggest celebrity this side of the Midwest, and they kept their trust to a select few.

She nudged her elbow that wasn't holding the marker right above her father's knee, being the highest point she could reach, and when he looked down she motioned her head towards her teammate waiting just outside the limits of their base for a response.

Lifting his mask slightly as a courtesy, he winked through the gap. "We'll catch up next week Rodney, besides, I think Bluebird here gave you guys one hell of a lead that no one can beat for today," he said as Megaera nodded her little ponytails to that response, and the two started their walk back towards their car. They loaded the gym bags to the front trunk and gave a responding wave out the rolled down windows to the middle-aged black man waving excitedly in their direction before driving off.

They drove home in a Tucker '48 which he had to take up as a more family friendly alternative than the modded Hornett he previously sported during his "career". After having an "invisible-car-with-a-toddler-locked-inside" fiasco, Roxanne gave him an ultimatum; get rid of the car, or no more tag along rides to work for Megaera. Actually, no more Megaera in the car, period. They had done some bickering here and there until they settled with him buying and driving the Torpedo whenever their daughter was with him.

The car pulled up alongside the beat up Hudson Hornett into the garage that was still a part of the old lair area of the warehouse, as usual, but her eye had caught something on their way into the driveway. Just as Megamind was putting the car into park, she had already unbuckled her belt and was halfway to the garage doors to see what the misfigured dark shapes were under the young bur oaks that lined their industrial neighborhood.

As she got closer she noticed one was moving around lamely in a circle and the other just moved with the wind, as if it had been wrapped in black tissue. Sure enough there was two baby chicks that had fallen out of their nest. The one she noticed that had been fluttering around seemed to have injured a wing from the harsh fall, and she crouched down to try and calm it enough to earn its trust before attempting to pick it up. The other, unfortunately...

"Daddy, what's wrong with that one? It won't chirp like this one," she motioned with her closed hands to the chick on the floor before raising them once to symbolize the one in her palms. He moved his eyes over everywhere but down to her, not knowing what to do or say, not knowing what would come next, actually.

He half-expected to talk to her about situations like this. Of course he had, she was a brilliant child with the mental capacity close enough to William Sidis', maybe even surpassing him. He finally brought his eyes down to meet her gentle blue-green ones, sparkling with untainted purity, and found himself dumbstruck.

With a grave look he realized it would be time to give her the talk of light.

* * *

When he was born, his eyes fluttering open and gaining a hazy but solid focus on his surroundings, he could hear his parents talk about "having the spark of life" and someone off the distance referring to his mother's delivery as "a successful passing of light". Years later, after walking through the prison courtyard to his room during the middle of family visitation and bumping into a woman cradling a newborn, he asked Minion in the privacy behind his cell's iron bars what those words meant.

"Well," Minion said with a cough, trying to clarify, "Here, on earth, light is represented as, well, visible light waves seen by the naked eye. But in Me'gwa.., _home_ , it was a force.., what fed our Otur'lek. The basis of life for the peoples, yours and mine combined."

With a pensive stare, he little blue boy replied, "But I distinctly remember them saying the light was passed. To pass light. Min-yon, light is an electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the E-M spectrum, something that is intangible. Even as a force, how could you pass it on to a recently born being?" the young Megamind asked as he distracted himself with his sketched creations on the wall, trying to make sense of the saying.

"Here, when the baby is born it's said that the mother is giving birth. But home, the whole of the occasion was referred as 'to give light.' It was said that when the baby is in the mother's womb she is sharing her light with them, but when they're born they take a little bit of that light along, starting the spark of life," Minion tried to explain, his facial muscles showing a cross of contempt and thoughtfulness as he tried to put it in the simplest terms he could grasp at.

"The light is what gives us life, what moves us along, the will of our parents handed down to us before we could even process thought. And it is said that when we go, that light blows out with us."

* * *

Megaera looked down at the bird on the hard cement sidewalk. The feathers moved gently with the evening breeze in an almost fluid slow-motion. She raised her hands up slowly to gaze at the little thing in her hands, struggling with weakness to catch a breath. She brought it close to her chest as she looked up to her father, eyes still shining but the luster of purity now lost inside awareness.

 _Too aware, too fast, too soon-_ he thought.

"So is that what it is? These babies, they don't have the light anymore?" she asked as she looked down to the chick in her hand, rubbing her thumbs over the inabled body that moved its injured wing in untimed intervals.

He kneeled down to her eye level even though she kept her eyes on the fledgling in her hands. She finally tore her eyes from the lump in her palms to face her dad, not only awareness in her gaze, but intermingled with pain, _understanding_.

"Can't we put it back?" she croaked, her voice breaking with the tears she was fighting to contain.

"Can't we help them? Put the light back, daddy? Please, there has to be a way."

 _You know damn well that's not a possibility, and I can see it in your eyes love-_ he thought, shaking his head in slight frustration before going on to say "Honey, that's impossible. What's done is done. We can't put the light back in even if we harnessed all the energy of the sun. There's nothing we can do about the one on the floor, and even if we put our best efforts for this one it might be just moot-"

"But I can daddy, I know it's too late for the others but I can! I don't want it to be for nothing, I can still save him, I can if I try I'll feed him and wash him, fix up his arm, I can do it I don't want her to have done it for nothing _pachio_ I have to save him I-I" she ranted on, her words blurring together as the choking tears finally gripped her throat and took over, her chest heaving with the fast paced motion of her taking deep whooping breaths.

She usually reserves calling him in her Esperanto language for more personal moments, when it was more heartfelt; which in his mind he always knew she was a bleeding heart when it came to small helpless creatures, and it was agonizing seeing her pouring out her emotion for this one.

He raised his hands to grip her firmly from her shoulders, brushing her pigtails from sticking to her now-wet cheeks and shushing over her cries, trying to soothe her with his cooing.

"Hey, hey-hey-hey shh-shhh no no it's okay, come on, wipe those eyes love-" he said hurriedly, rubbing his thumbs on the corners of her eyes as she was giving out quick hiccuping sobs, "-it's okay, look mommy is waiting inside for dinner, she worked hard to make it tonight, you know she hardly gets Minion to let her cook because, well..." he went on as he made an exaggerated face of disgust, slightly sticking his tongue out as she giggled through her last hiccup, rubbing her fingers over the baby bird still clasped in her hands and swiping her sleeve across her eyes.

His hands never left her shoulders as he let her know, _yes, you can bring him inside. Yes, he'll stay in your room tonight and yes, he can come for dinner but only if he sits in his own chair at the table._

He couldn't have made her smile brighter had he given her the moon and the stars in the sky. With one final hic she swallowed the few tears stuck in her throat and threw her free arm around his neck, making sure to cover what part of his face she could reach with cold fluttering kisses that warmed each spot she touched.

She practically glided across the floor in skips and hops, and as he watched her run inside the dimly lit garage he slowly stood up from the crouched position he had maintained throughout their conversation when a part of it whispered in his head.

 _I don't want her to have done it for nothing._

Her, who?

With skepticism contorting his face, he looked around by just moving his head at first, taking in the surroundings.

Dead bird, behind him by six feet and off to his right a bit. Twigs, leaves, small pieces of scrap and fluff... _fluff._ _Feather fluff?_ He turned his body completely and saw the fluff sparsely scattered on the floor. He picked up what he had assumed was a twig but noticed as he brought it closer was a plume, stipped of half of its vane and bloodied at the end, where it should've been inside the skin of a bird. And by the size of it, an adult.

 _The mother._ _Where is she_ \- he panicked, looking up the tree and seeing the deep scratches going up the bark and to the nest, which he now realized was torn apart as if it imploded on itself. Without looking he grabbed the nest and brought it down, feeling something shift inside. He gently picked up the chick on the floor and placed him inside as he couldn't help but notice the mess in the nest of what _might_ have been more fledglings.

 _Don't think about it, don't talk about it. It's how you do things, Megamind, it's how it's always been. Remember that time in Chinatown where that Meth-head had the knife and-_

He silenced that thought before it could grip its talons into him again. He took the nest to what little fresh earth they had surrounding the back of the lair, the first startings of a garden that Minion had insisted on for beginning their personal "garden to table" cultivation's. Passing the vines of peas and heirloom tomatoes he headed for the patches of top soil that still needed to be fertilized for next years crop.

On his knees, he placed the remnants of the nest on the ground, pulled the nearby trowel and hand fork, and made a hole.

* * *

Over a dinner of Lasagna and a side salad, the only things Minion could "assist" with without making Miss Ritchie feel like he was doing most of the cooking, Megaera went on about the endless possibilities she had for fixing up the bird's wing.

From healing it with a regenerative serum she had been experimenting with to being able to reconstruct a modular wing out of poly-carbonate with that 3-D printer they gifted her for her birthday the previous month in case the wing was a loss, she rambled on until she looked down pointedly to the food on her plate with distraction and decided to talk about what was on it later. More preferably with Min-min.

"I, still don't know what to call him" she said with sudden realization.

"Don't think you'll be able to keep him that long, he's gonna wanna head out sooner or later after he get's fixed up, sweetie. It's only the right thing to do," Roxanne explained, reaching over a hand to place on her daughters arm.

As she looked down to the bird on the stool next to her, her face brightened up with an idea.

"Why not call him Darwin?" she suggested.

With a chuckle, Megamind agreed, "Actually, that's not half bad."

"But wouldn't that be kind of, dooming the poor thing?" Minion added worriedly.

"Not if you see it as Charles himself would've, 'Survival of the fittest'. I think it's fitting honey, he does seem to be a fighter," Roxanne countered.

She beamed with happiness for a moment before taking a bite of the bread sticks and placed a small crumb of it inside the bird nest. With nervous fidgeting she continuously picked up the bird and placed it back down in its make-shift nest from cotton balls and cut up egg-carton inside a shoe box. During a speed talking session she proclaimed how she would take care of the bird, which she assumed was a grackle because of its shape and coloration, until she stopped mid-sentence and declared, with surprise, "Hey, it's not a grackle at all. It's a Raven!"

Everyone in the dining room looked over to the little head barely reaching over the side of the dinner table as the pigtails bopped up and down in glee.

"Honey, how are you so sure?" Asked Megamind, curiosity creeping in.

"His eyes! His eyes are Blue!"

"So?"

"Daaad, _you're_ the one that taught me most of the birds of the _Corvus_ species have yellow eyes, except for crows and ravens."

"Well then how are you so sure he's not a crow? He seems terribly small to be a raven," he pressed, a sly smile creeping in hinting at the possibility of him already knowing.

"Be-cause, his wings are that pointed shape you showed me and not straight like a crows. And his beak is crooked," she nodded, matter-of-factly.

Roxanne looked over to her husband, a sly smile of her own giving off an _I know what you did_ feel before looking down to her plate again to gather her thoughts.

She looked up to her family surrounding her, and thought _Hell, now's the best time if any to share the news._

And when she said what was needed to be said, the energy in the room was so overwhelming and joyful it was no wonder most of everyone felt spent after a few minutes, seeming to crash where they were.

 _Or maybe it's just the pasta_ \- most of them thought.

Minion stood to clear out the table as Megaera tried to prove to her parents she wasn't tired at all and insisted she needed to stay up for a little while longer to run biochem testing on the raven, even as she struggled to keep her head up from hitting the table.

With a grin Roxanne picked up Darwin as Megamind cradled a very sleepy-eyed Megaera.

"I think it's time for our little mad scientist to go to bed."

* * *

Her parents stood at each side of her bed, and she looked at them with as much attentiveness that they seemed to be giving her. Megamind bent over her low bed and had to rest on one knee on the comforter to be able to reach her over the wide mattress that all but swallowed in the little tot. After he brushed back her loose hair from her forehead, he gave her a fleeting kiss before rubbing his fore against hers.

She wasn't exactly sure why they do that, other than it gave her a warm, butterfly-ing feeling in her chest and she liked that a lot. It wasn't the same as when her mother did it, but it still warmed her heart, nonetheless. After he straightened himself up, Megaera gave a quick once over to the two hovering over her bed and took in the sight.

- _mommy wrapped in that shiny blue robe she wears so much it practically smells just like her, and daddy in his black pa-gee-ahmas with all those symbols on it and that silly blue cape attached with it. He laughs when I say it like that, and mommy just gives me this funny look every time-_

Before she realized it, they had walked off to the door and were shutting off her bedroom lights that wrapped around the edges of the ceiling and countered turning on her night light, which was what seemed like a bajillion stars hanging from the ceiling, separated by every few square inches.

They stared at her for a moment before walking off down the hall to their own room at the end. They had left her bedroom door wide open, as she always insisted on keeping it that way through stubborn refusal to ever close it.

It seemed like she was closing herself off to the outside world if she did that, although her bedroom was on the second floor and her window had a view of the distant downtown Metrocity, and she still left the drapes on her two windows pulled wide open most of the time. Unless it was during the winter solstice, when the sun was passing through the southern hemisphere, and even then she only pulled the sheer drapes to let in most of the light but not the blinding glare.

After he had cleared most of the mess downstairs, Minion was making his rounds through the second floor when he walked by Megaera's door and saw her sitting at her desk instead of tucked into bed. He almost missed her through the dim lighting of the starry night lights floating in the air.

He slowed at the sight until coming to a brief halt and changing direction towards her room. Despite having the door wide open he stopped shy from walking inside and softly rapped his metal knuckles on the door instead.

"Little Miss? Why are you still up? Did you have another bad dream?" he asked in quick succession, kneading his fingers nervously as he looked around her room, noticing how her purple bed sheets were in the same position of being pushed back from the action of her climbing down, which meant she hadn't turned around and straightened them out.

Her pillows weren't thrown across the room like she usually does out of stressful irritation, taking it out on the goose down whenever her muscles ached to act out on something. Neither were her books strewn about on the floor from speed reading Brothers Grimm or Homer, and her thought cloud circled idly in the air, undisturbed by anything but the gentle A/C breeze that spun each card on its string. She was a creature of predictable habit and only broke routine when her mind wandered, which meant she was too distracted to bother and keep with her neat, albeit chaotic, methods tonight.

He looked at her busy hands scribbling away into one of the many color coded composition books. This one was grey. Which meant.., what, exactly? He wasn't sure, he never saw a grey one before. He knew Green meant biology notes, like the configuration of the flowers or the anatomy of the animals in the park they spent most Sundays in. Red was all the foods she tried her hand at creating with Minion as her guide, some she surprisingly discovered she liked to eat and starting from the back were the ones she didn't. So far the only one on the back page printed neatly in the middle of the line, was cucumber.

Blue was meteorology and other atmospheric sciences, as well as some astronomy she would take note of if they stood outside long enough after the sunset. And Yellow was chemistry. Those weren't fun to be around when she got to combining in the lab next to Sir. They once got into a small spat in the garage as she was in the middle of mixing, and both Minion and Roxanne ran in after a loud bang was heard to reveal the father-daughter duo rolling around in bubblegum colored foam laughing hysterically. They're still having trouble scrubbing off the pink from the higher points on the walls.

Orange was crammed to the bill, so much so where they just gave up and handed her a binder to place all the loose leftover notes in. He wasn't sure who contributed more to her technology book, but it always lit Sir up to see her going mad with creativity in-between the pages filled with post-its and loose napkins from her mid-eating inspirations that would hit her when she was away from home.

Relief flooded through him before he found the need to fill in the void of noise with the question he was afraid to ask - _young miss, what is grey?-_ when she placed her pencil down gently, shoved herself away from the desk with her palms and closed her composition with the same motion of putting it away in the top drawer.

She took a sharp little inhale of air as she furrowed her brows and pinched her eyes shut in intense concentration. With an "o" she slowly breathed out and seemed to be collecting her thoughts before making eye contact with Minion as she re-opened them.

"Minion, where do babies come from?" she asked, tilting her head slightly as the innocently puzzled face looked up to him, immediately making him take a sharp inhale of water, as if it was air itself. That was _not_ what he was expecting her to hear, and he was especially _not_ the one to tell her.

"Ah-well I, you see, ab da-da" was all he managed to stutter before she burst out laughing, holding her stomach as she doubled over.

"Geez, Min-min, it's a joke, i'm not _two_ anymore, ya'know," she said, placing her hands on her hips matter-of-factly. He still held his breath as he awaited her response, _Yeah, but being four still doesn't make it okay to know._

"They come out of a mommy's tummy after she drinks some serum stuff that a stork brings that's made from stardust. Duh."

With a chortle he looked at her, saying "Is that what your father told you?"

She shrugged as she hopped off the seat and let Minion guide her back to her over-fluffed bed by her shoulder, making sure to float her hand over the box that held Darwin on her night stand.

He gently re-tucked her in, with the same motion of moving her hair from her face, when she finally asked what was on her mind the whole time.

"Min-min, beef and pork and chicken, come from animals, right?"

He froze again as he was re-adjusting her pillows, and thought it best to be honest with her this time. She was smart enough to know on her own and make her own decisions from whatever knowledge she had to gain from this.

"Yes, hon, meat comes from animals."

"And what about milk? Cheese?"

"Those too. All comes from animals," he confirmed.

"Well..," she paused, considering the next words she had to say, "I wont eat them anymore," she affirmed with a nod and a cross of her arms.

"Ah, okay. It's your choice. Although, I'm not sure if your parent's would agree," _Especially Sir-_ he added mentally, the worry clear on his face.

She reached up to place her hands on his bowl and looked directly to the Itchyoid inside. "Don't worry," she whispered, "I'll make sure you don't get in trouble. I just want to give them a second chance. Everyone deserves a chance if they only have the light in them once, right?"

Down in his tank when he got back to his room, he could still feel the radiating warmth her little hands had sent through the glass, and nestled himself into his castle with a painful combination of love, pride, and sorrow painted on his face.

* * *

The next day as she was in school, Megaera couldn't help but notice the same group of kids hovering over the thin girl named Kelsey, who had a limp. She had a funny way of walking but never seemed to let it hinder her daily activities such as joining in gym or making her way in between classes.

Even having skipped a few grades early on, and being able to share the same classroom as her cousin, Nishi, Meg felt she still lacked being around civil and, well for lack of a better word, intelligent kids of her same mentality. Excluding Nishi, of course.

It came to no surprise that Megaera would throw herself from the top of the jungle gym to land on top of the three boys that had now shoved the little blonde Kelsey, her crutches bent from the force of the biggest boy stepping on it with all his weight.

She did, after all, set herself to be the protector of the helpless and the one to give a standing chance to the weak after she had her epiphany last night in her fluffy purple and pink bed.

And it would also come to no surprise that both of her parents picked her up from leaving work early that day, chewing her ear out over the fact that "You shouldn't be getting into fights, you're smarter than this" and also how "You're so small yourself you could've gotten hurt, what if no one else could stand up for you?"

She tried to tune out most of the chatter coming from the front seats, as she kicked her feet back and forth from hitting her seat to hitting her backpack on the floor. But she knew she did it on impulse. She was stupid to think she could make a difference. How could she? Being small and skinny and - _Blue, you liddle blue wreak what did you dew do my nothe?-_ she could practically hear the boy next to her in the car, pinching the bridge of his nose and tilting his head back.

 _They're bullies, they call everyone mean names_ \- she tried to tell the stinging in her eyes in the hopes of willing it away.

 _Yeah, but is everyone else blue?-_ the sting shot back, allowing an opening for tears to pour down her cheeks.

"Oh, no, no honey don't cry, please we didn't mean to yell, you just scared us that's all, we're worried about you," Roxanne called out as she turned completely in her passenger seat, trying to reach out to her distressed daughter.

She silently wished for them to go away, just this moment, because she was getting angry, but not with them, no, it was with herself, for being blue and different, and okay maybe angry with daddy a little bit - _because it's his fault I'm blue._

Oh. Oh no. She thought a mean thing. She doesn't like thinking mean thoughts about people, 'specially not her mommy and daddy.

She realized the car had stopped moving and it was darker than it should be outside the windows. Looking out she saw they were parked inside the garage already. With a heavy huff she grabbed her bag and stormed out the car, proceeding to run up to her room without a word to her parents who were both calling out to her from the downstairs living area, having followed close behind.

She wasn't exactly sure how long she laid in bed face down, her fingers gently petting Darwin who was softly chirping inside the box.

"At least I haven't messed you up," She thought.

 _Yet-_ Her mind added bitterly without her permission, calling out fresh tears.

A soft knock came from the door, which she had closed partially this time, but not all the way as to have the lock be activated on the knob.

She jerked her head up in surprise and realized it must've been close to dinnertime because the sun was clear out of the sky by now, a warm red-orange settling on her windows.

With a groan she rolled over to face the ceiling instead of the visitor. Feeling a weight shift on the edge of the bed, she was making an educated guess that it was Min-min by the way it shifted more than usual, but before she could look up the soft voice spoke out, "Hey, kiddo. I think we need to go for a walk."

Her eyes widened with surprise as she finally looked up to the figure on the other side of the mattress, and brightened as she blurted out, "Pa!"

* * *

Up in the observatory, John walked around the opening to gaze out to what has become of the city since his son took over. Unemployment had plummeted since he created the helping hands foundation that promised to always have a job to those who reached out for one, whether it was helping clean the city or taking up a spare hard-hat for construction, or making visitation rounds to the sick and elderly confined to their homes with no one to care for or check on them.

Crime and related drug abuse had also lowered drastically, when community rehabilitation centers popped up and people stopped committing crimes just to get committed by a judge because they couldn't afford it on their own.

The few that were left homeless had a place to claim as their own when tiny-house communities were built in the blocks that had no real usage. Homes rarely bigger than 200 square feet were put up in a miniature neighborhood layout, complete with a small prayer church, a community garden and a corner stand that offered a minuscule selection of basic necessities.

 _When shit needs to get done around here, no one is more qualified -_ he thought to himself, looking up to the metal dome surrounding him.

No longer made of wood and duct-tape, _-but it's the most cost-efficient way-_ he would defend, he had torn it down and properly placed it back up as a gift to Roxanne, for her adoration of the practicality of having a working observatory to her use when she ached to see night sky for its full glory. But mostly because it was proof of the first time he actually surprised _and_ impressed her by acknowledging her intellect. But she doesn't let him know that.

During her pregnancy he had noticed her growing interest in studying the constellations, and feed her curiosity with more equipment of stronger telescopes, cameras and projectors, with a couple of blinky dials thrown in for the hell of it.

And now here was their kid, the little beauty mark of her mother in the same spot under her own lip and similar freckles spread across her nose with a lighter shade of her father's blue tinting her skin, pigtails bopping with her nodding thoughts as she set up some coordination's on the telescope and stepped back as the machine re-calculated.

A lighted binkie in between her lips was the only proof of the nervousness she contained, and with straight eye contact, removed it from her mouth slowly to ask, "Do you miss her?"

He was surprised, but years of having to deal with the grief her father, and his son, had put him through trained him to avoid showing certain emotions unless necessary.

"Of course I do, It's hard not to miss someone that has been a part of your life for so long, they become a part of you. She was the good in me and the good in your father. Well, not _all_ of it but she was a big part. I think that's what made her special for us. She was able to teach us so much and do amazing things without having to lift a finger," he replied, walking towards the telescope to set the coordination's for another star cluster.

When it projected on the screen, he walked towards the gap again, not really focusing on anything in particular as he spoke. "I think some people are put on this earth to do something with their lives, to be a statement, make a change."

Having stood in the same spot the entire time, she walked over to be under his elbow as she asked "Even when they only have one chance to do it?"

"Especially if you only have one chance. Besides, you're not really gone until people stop remembering you. Because, see kiddo," he kneeled to view her at eye level, "The things we do in life causes ripples in other peoples lives. Whether they be good or bad, we're still around long after we've gone. That is, until those ripples stop moving. So you gotta focus on being the good in someone's life, even if they're not so good themselves."

With thoughtful consideration, she looked around before smiling at him and saying, "Like daddy, and you!"

He gave a sighing laugh as he agreed, "Yeah, like your old men. Tell you what, poppet, why don't we go down to Carlo's and get some of those pizzas you like so much?"

She was starting to grin but halted herself before asking, "Do they make any without meat, or cheese?"

He was puzzled for a bit but then replied, "Yeah, I think so, why?"

"Oh, just, curious. Thinking about changing it up for a bit. Hey can we go to the park afterwards and feed the leftover corn to the ducks? Min-min got too much left over from the Tupperware party and doesn't know what to do with it," She said quickly as she proceeded to skip down towards the stairs.

"Sure, kiddo, anything you want."

She stopped abruptly at the top of the stairs and turned her head over her shoulder to face her grandfather, now stopped at mid-stride not knowing what she was going to say.

"You know, pa, I miss her too. She had the prettiest frost-grey eyes."

With that she turned back to the stairs and walked down them, leaving him in the middle of the room flabbergasted and for the first time, unable to prevent his emotions from showing on his face.

* * *

John was walking back to the living room from having tucked in his little granddaughter, after a brainstorming session and some tinkering with her 3-D printer to help Kelsey with her _Palsy Limp_ , to join Megamind and Roxanne for a bit of a chat before leaving for the night. They would most likely insist that he spend the night, as usual, and he would give his excuse that he had something to do in the morning, as also usual, _like sleep in, and go out fishin' with the guys._

Ever since he had retired each one of his kids immediately assumed he was unable to care for himself or would be in some need of help throughout the day. At first it was flattering that they were willing to put time and room aside for him but now it was just getting damn tiresome.

"Well, I know what's up with your daughter," He said, making the last steps down into the foyer before walking into the living room.

"Father, if you would be so kind as to share with the class," Megamind said with slight mockery, receiving a nudge from Roxanne as well as a giggle.

"She's a fighter. Gotta stand up for what she believes in, and to protect those that are defenseless," the man replied, running a hand through his snow-white hair before standing in front of the fireplace, even with no fire burning in the pit.

"Tell me something I don't know," Roxanne replied casually.

"Well, she seems to be a born-again vegan. With a mission," he simply stated, taking a seat across the couple.

The surprised expressions on their faces were a little less surprised than he had expected them to be, however Megamind still found it necessary let out a mumbled "shit" and proceeded to scowl at a now running away Minion who claimed he had forgotten he "left the lawnmower running," as he burst through the front door.

He shook his head sternly and Roxanne just laughed with glee right next to him, and he turned his father and said, "I guess that explains it, for a second there I was worried she was acting out."

John tilted his head slightly in a suggestion that he was confused. "Why would she act out?"

"Well, she's not going to be the smallest one running around here anymore," Megamind replied with a lopsided grin as Roxanne snuggled her nose into his neck with a smile, and his father was too taken aback to notice their hands were now placed over her stomach protectively.

"She, she's.., what.." John couldn't word out his surprise, his mind on overdrive at the thought of another grandchild, unable to hide his emotions for the second time that day.

"Yep," Megamind cut in, the pure happiness practically spilling out of his eyes.

"And we're having a boy."

* * *

 **ALRIIIGHT**

 **Was able to finally crank this baby out, and I'm _soo sorry_ for the hold up.**

 **I personally felt this one was by far the hardest, and I feel like this will be a common thing for me to do. Doubt myself, wallow in self loathing then proceed to hammer out another chapter with the same feelings towards that one as with the previous.**

 **I just want to know if you at least enjoy reading this, it makes my whole day reading your loving reviews, especially those that offer helping criticism.**

 **Most of the time I'm finishing this up in the middle of the night (*cough-cough* like tonight, 6:30 A.M *cough*) so I might be sleep deprived or just not in my right mind to catch things.**

 **Also, fair warning, this next week will be a little hard for me, actually I might not be able to get in the groove for this story for a while.**

 **I lost my job.**

 **It's not the end of the world because I still have some savings on the side, and my husband has his job, too.**

 **It's just hard because I was making the higher amount.**

 **But, C'est la vie, mon ami.**

 **Don't worry about me, my loves, I just hope I don't lose my inspiration (or whatever trickling is left of it anyway).**

 **I promise I'll jump on when I can and try to make it up to you all.**

 **You're my reason for this!**


	5. Zero-Sum Game

**Don't kill me, please.  
** **I'm deeply sorry it's taken so long to write this out, but I do hope you enjoy this chapter, It's been killer for me to be able to put this one together.**

* * *

One expects the day to come when they must bury their parent; overseeing the funeral arrangements and expenses, getting the proper paperwork done for the ownership over their estates, figuring out how to transfer holdings and assets that might've been left-over along with handling the care of dependents and pets.

However, none could ever expect to have it happen so soon, before even reaching the legal age of adulthood to be precise.

And not one person could fathom what would have to be done in the event that your own child was the one to be buried, leaving behind a child of their own.

So it was, on a mild evening in late September that father and child would stand around a fresh grave to pay their last respects to their loved one.

John looked down to his sons as they stood in front of the grave, their hands on the shoulders of their children; Daniel holding Samara and Nishi who were eleven and eight at the time, Blue firmly grasping Megaera who was four while holding baby Johnathan in his other arm. He noticed how both of his boys tensed for a moment when he looked up to the clear blue sky and murmured "Just like the day we buried your mother".

Off to the side, the last one standing beside the resting place, was thirteen year old Morgan, who was staring with a blank gaze towards the tombstone at the name surrounded by engravings of flowers and music notes.

 _Elliane Suzette Parker_

He stood alone, holding a single marigold for his mother whom he made his promise to always be strong willed and kind hearted, to not let things get him down, especially when this day were to come.

* * *

She had a hard time hiding the fact that she was sick from the family.

It wasn't too hard to see her pale complexion, weight loss or the way her hair started thinning out. After the first few weeks they knew something was up, but she always tried to put herself beside everyone else, and when it came to be known that she had stage 3 breast cancer everyone put themselves aside for her and Morgan.

The doctors had given her a moderate chance of survival, and everything had seemed to be going well when she was showing healthy signs of remission.

Too well.

They hadn't expected for it to have spread through her lymph nodes and ending up in her cerebral cortex. By the time they had found the mass, it had already spread enough to have multiple tumors in several locations, the main one attached to the base of her brain stem where it met her cerebellum. The only signs of the relapse showed up too late.

She had been in the middle of packing Morgan's school lunch while holding a conversation with Roxanne on the phone and she suddenly lost grip. Confused, she bent down and couldn't get her fingers to wrap around the cell properly, had only managed to tap on the speakerphone and explained to Roxanne what was going on with a bit of humor mingled with frustration.

Then her voice started to slur. And for the first time in years, she was scared for her life, and for her son.

Because at the time all four of their kids had overlapping classes in the same school complex, Gabriella was already on her way with the three girls to pick up Morgan. And she was the one to find him crouched over Ellie who had passed out on the floor.

After tests and multiple runs through scanning, MRI, MRS and CAT being the few of them, it was determined that the tumor was too advanced to be able to operate on without furthering the damage done. When it seemed that the worse of it was yet to come, it was then that the doctors had calculated her time left had been set in days.

All they could do was stand back and watch it eat her away.

Forty-eight days was all it took to have a wonderful mother and loving being waste away in the shell of her former self, wires and machines attached every which way through her body which sat on a hospital bed in a private wing. Some days were okay, she would be moving around and behaving as normal, being able to have family members visit, including Roxanne carrying a newborn Johnathan to which she was able to meet for the first time.

She was even well enough to have the kids strike up a music session in her room, because she always enjoyed hearing them sing for her. It was on one of those good days that Morgan was able to have a last moment with his mom and make his promise, while holding the bouquet of gold flowers that always made her face light up. Other days, however...

Other days she would fall victim to violent outbursts, cursing and threatening anyone to come into the room. The worst of it would be when she was fully aware of what was happening to her, unable to speak or move from the crippling depression that she was consumed by, locked in the cage of her deteriorating mind for days on end.

Megamind sat day in and out next to his sister, most of the time just hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped under his chin. He racked his brain for solutions, answers to this problem, coming up with medicines and radical therapies that he knew, subconsciously, would never work because it was too late to deal with something too advanced.

The only thing he could aid in was her pain, for which he had a technique still under development that would inhibit the nerve endings that were overactive, blocking the signals that were being sent through her spinal cord. With literally nothing else for her to lose, he had her prepared for a topical procedure to have the nano-chip implanted into her neck, where it would block and try to radicalize the levels of serotonin flowing through her spine, along with other implants and medicines to aid in the process. She had an immediate positive reaction from it following the next few days, and after a week she almost seemed to be her normal self again. Almost.

Both him and Morgan were there when she woke up, everything finally seeming to have cleared behind her frost-colored eyes, her auburn hair held in a ponytail no longer matted down in sweat as she smiled over to the both of them. They both smiled back as she looked out the windows that faced the national park behind the city and said "It's a nice day for ice cream, isn't it?".

Less than an hour later, she took her last breath.

* * *

It was at the funeral home that Morgan and Megamind had their one and only fight after it had been settled through the lawyers that he would be the one to take in the orphaned teen, but Morgan didn't want to be helped by someone, in his own words, who couldn't help his dying mother.

After placing the last golden flower on her casket, he had stormed off into the trees that surrounded the cemetery, careful not to step over the land that covered his own grandmother's grave.

Later, after having been wandering around the forest for what seemed close to an hour, he had settled down on a creek that ran parallel to the funerary grounds and chose it as a preferable spot to sit on a boulder and mope. He had barely started the action of skipping stones when he was startled by the sound of twigs snapping and turned around to find little Megaera coming around a brush, evident that she was searching for him when her face brightened up at the sight of him.

She had climbed up the rock and struggled for a moment before being able to sit on it properly, patting down the hem of her plum colored dress to be more presentable for her cousin, who from that day on would now legally be her adopted brother.

They sat in silence as he skipped the rocks and she kept patting the edges of her skirt which stuck out from underneath her black overcoat, the nervous tension stretching between the both of them. Finally, through a flustered huff after the last rock he threw sank without skipping he asked through gritted teeth "Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be..," he paused, almost wanting to say something to insult her intelligence, or gender/stereotype, but couldn't. He could never possibly say anything to hurt her feelings because he always had a soft spot in his heart for his cousins who were always siblings to him, even before the legality of it. So he just stared at her, knowing he paused for far too long, and continued on instead to say "Shouldn't you be out looking for something injured or broken to fix?"

 _Not really a back-handed comment now is it, smart-ass?_

By the way she looked at him, it was pretty obvious she was aware of why the long pause, and turned her attention to the stream running below them, the sunlight's reflection dancing across the ripples. She gave a shorter pause than he had before turning back to him and saying "You know, not all wounds are skin deep" and held her hand out, palm up, as an offering.

 _Damn_.

She was always wiser than expected, and just when someone would doubt she held so much in that not-so-oversized head of hers, she would comeback to bite with more knowledge. He struggled to keep a firm frown on his lips but the water in his eyes were betraying his tough composure, so he sniffed through one raised nostril and took her hand in silence as they both looked back out to the creek.

"Sometimes I just feel like I'm the only one. Like no one else could possibly know what I'm going through," he muttered.

"Pa said you might feel that way. He and dad were talking when I snuck off, didn't notice I had left by the looks of it," she said as she turned to look over her shoulder to the foliage that concealed the private brook.

Through a snort, he replied "Yeah? And how the fuck would they know how I feel?". Megaera shot him an angry look of disapproval and he sheepishly shrunk in place, giving a muttered "sorry" for his outburst.

With anger still lingering, she replied "Because, mister I'm-all-alone-in-the-galaxy, why am I here?"

He gave her a puzzled look and slowly tilted his head to the side, not understanding her question entirely. "Because, you're family."

She made a quick snort before replying "No, I mean here. On this planet."

He was clearly still confused, and with a sigh she went on to say "Long ago, on another planet far out there, my daddy had to be sent out in a rocket-ship with Minion all alone because his planet was dying. My gramma and grampa had to send him out to here, Earth, without knowing what would happen to him, and they had to trust Minion to take care of both of them. I don't think they could ever imagine all the stuff he'd do. But think about it, had daddy and Min-min not been put inside the rocket-ship in time. I wouldn't be here."

Looking down to her with concern, he quietly said "I can never imagine what it would be like to not have you guys around. You're all what a family is supposed to be. You are my family, and that'll never change."

With a sad smile, she added "Sometimes, people have to lose something important for someone else to uh, benefit, from it. We might not see it at first, someone's loss as another ones gain, but it's there. I know it's unfair and it hurts a lot, but it happens. And of course daddy has to know what it's like to lose everything, so you can't say you're all alone."

Morgan gave her a sideways stare in disbelief as she broke into a shy grin and admitted "Okay, at least that's what pa told me. I only know so much because he got daddy to tell me where we came from after I asked and no one would tell me."

They both shared a small laugh as they realized they had still been holding hands throughout the entire conversation. They reluctantly let go and Morgan got off the rock first, brushing the pant legs of his suit and holding his arms out to catch Megaera as she jumped of the high boulder itself.

He noticed something hard in one of her coat pockets hit against his arm. After settling her down on the ground he motioned with his hand towards the object and asked "Another quick-fix?" which was what she usually called her gadgets that she would carry around and try to tinker with throughout the day.

"No, actually, it's for you and Aunt Ellie," She replied as she reached in her coat and pulled out a vintage microphone. It was sitting on top of a small stand that stood as a pyramid support, the mechanics no bigger than an apple. She held it out towards him with both hands.

"I made it for you to sing into, you know, that song your mom likes when we all sing together. It lights up when it hears music, and your mom has one with her. Hers also lights up, so she wont ever be left in the dark. And she can, you know, find her way back home," she said simply as she looked up to him with an innocent smile.

It came to him as a shock. No one had ever done something so small and seemingly unimportant but full of love for him before. He tried to hold himself together but failed and fell to his knees, forgetting the rough ground of pebbles and dead leaves around them, and flung his arms around the little one.

They shared a moment of tears and hushed conversation before he was able to pull himself back and really look at her, then down to the object that she still held in her hands before taking it himself.

He pulled himself up and stared at the microphone, ignoring the dirt and leaves that clung to his knees and asked her, just to make sure, "You said mom has one of these with her? Right now?"

She replied with a shaky "Yi-yeah" as he started to walk back to the rest of the group that was still left around the burial grounds, seeming to be in a daze. She followed closely behind him, making sure he was walking the right way because he wouldn't look up from the microphone in his hands.

Before completely clearing the brush, she looked over her shoulder to a dark area that was off to the side, hiding a large figure under the shadows. With a quick nod she signed "thank you" with the hand that wasn't placed on Morgans back out towards the dark figure, and had Morgan not been lost in a trance he would've heard the heavy _thud-thud_ of footsteps making their way out of the forest as well.

Not being a coincidence, Minion suddenly appeared in front of them with a look of worry on his face.

"Miss! We've been looking everywhere for you two, you had us scared half to death! Don't ever run off without telling someone where you'll be first, we were worried sick-" he went off in a small rant, waving his arms around and fanning both of the kids on the back to hurry their pace through the forest to the others. Megaera couldn't help but smile all the way back.

* * *

When they had all been in the car, they rode out to their house in silence where they would be holding the reception. The kids sat in the back quietly as Minion stared out the window in uncomfortable silence while chewing on one of his fins. Megaera nervously eyed towards Morgan, who wouldn't take his sight off the microphone which made her question whether she should have just kept it put away instead. Darwin in a hand-sewn vest sat on top of the rear deck where she could keep an eye on everyone quietly where Megaera had placed her, insisting to treat her as her companion ever since they figured out her sex during a bio-metric screening a few weeks prior.

Megamind and Roxanne sat in the front, where Johnathan was curled in the arms of her trench coat fast asleep. She kept rubbing her pink thumb over his blue cheek; his skin tone was darker than Megaera's, matching their fathers more closely along with the fact he had no hair. However his eyes had an amber tinge to them mixed with the green, making them hazel colored. The same pattern of freckles dusted across his nose, and the only hair he actually had, on his eyebrows, were a shade of brown closer to Roxanne's hair color.

In between Roxanne and Megamind was a glass bowl slightly smaller than a soccer ball, which had a small creature floating inside taking up half of the bowl. His big brown eyes kept looking nervously from one parent to the other, and Roxanne finally looked down to him and quietly said "It's okay, Zathri. He's just asleep. See?" and moved her left arm to reveal the sleeping baby, to which the little Ichtyoid settled his fins and closed his eyes to rest as well.

It had taken a few years of sequencing and adjusting, but Megamind was finally able to map out Minions entire genetic code, including the scores of extra strands his species was known to carry as back-up stored in a hybernative state in his mitochondria. In this case they were extremely lucky his race was so advanced when it came to their evolutionary DNA, and he was successfully able to make a clone for Johnathan to have as a companion. His own Minion, although he would be referred to as his given name not his title, so there wouldn't be any confusion in the household.

Between Megamind and Minion, they had no immediate need to map out their DNA and genomes when it was just the two of them living in the lair. They had run blood work on themselves to be able to pull data from which medicines and vaccines could be developed in case of an illness, or to treat those who might've caught something from them.

Megamind learned the hard way as a kid that certain people couldn't handle a natural oil that came off of his body, other than, by some miracle a select number of Uncles, the Warden and his family which is the reason why he had bonded with them so quickly. It triggered nothing more than a small rash reaction that most mistook as an allergy, which, in a way, it was. He found it hard growing up around those who were aware of his toxic touch and tried to keep their distance away from the two aliens.

After a few years of being held inside the prison, a room was developed to keep him away from other prisoners to prevent prolonged exposure to the blue boy's biological chemicals. The Warden had hired a private doctor to tend to Blue for any medical needs, a young man by the name of Robert Glenn that had earned a trust between the three of them and ever since then Megamind would depend on him for any medical needs beyond the simple care of him or Minion, even going as far as to call him for a helping hand throughout both of Roxanne's pregnancies.

Because they couldn't have a healthy pregnancy without medical intervention, helped in making the hormones and supplements that would aid in successful conception of the fetus' all the way to being an assisting midwife during both deliveries.

Thus, Megamind found it hard to be around people without triggering an allergic reaction. That included Roxanne, at first. During one of their earlier kidnapping sessions while she was still under the effects of the knock-out spray, he had taken a blood sample to configure a vaccine for her that would impede the reactions he gave her. After a couple of months he had figured out a formula that would work, but found the process lengthy and overdone to where he rather just kept Roxanne immune instead of trying to develop a vaccine for everyone else he kidnapped.

Not that he wanted to kidnap anyone else.

The only sounds coming in through the cabin was Megamind's fingers rhythmically tapping on the steering wheel and a quiet whir from the heater blowing in a gentle stream of warm air,  
everyone seeming to be stuck in the moment of their own thoughts that distracted them.

It took them a while to realize they had to stop by the old house to pack the last of the personal items left behind by Elliane before making their way to the apartment to meet with everyone else.

As he pulled into Ellie's garage, Morgan excused himself to his room, stating he had to sort through his old items. Reluctantly, Megamind went through what was left of the items in her home to make sure nothing important had been placed in the "donation" boxes. He took a moment to look around the now empty room that had once been the family area; on one end was a massive sliding door that led to the backyard which they held their Spring parties because she had an expanse of land that her brothers didn't.

On the door-frame that lead to the kitchen were a few lines etched into the paint that tracked Morgans growth throughout the years they had lived in the house, since he was seven. From the living room he could see the indentation that was left in the ceiling as a result of a pressure cooker mishap they had when trying to figure out how to use the thing for the first time.

In the bedroom, Morgan stared out his window that had a direct view of the driveway and the garage off to the right where the car was parked, Roxanne waiting inside with the door opened slightly and her feet hanging out, Megaera taking a walk around the plot with Darwin on one shoulder and Minion on tow. He always imagined there would come a time that he could easily sneak out of the house because of how simple it was to just crawl onto the ground from the open window, since there was practically no height difference between his bedroom floor and the outside.

He looked up to his ceiling where there was still some glow in the dark stars leftover, stuck by the dried out sticky tack that he placed when they first moved in. In a corner where he kept his drum-set was a grease stain from the times he would lean back in thought of how to proceed with his drum verse, the natural oils in his hair staining the wall.

Just as Megamind was doing in the family area, he too sat in the middle of the empty room with his legs crossed in front of him.

Neither the man or boy realized the other sat in the adjacent space, crying.

* * *

Things didn't get any easier as time passed, since both Megamind and Morgan were still feeling bitter from the heavy words they had spouted during the funeral. Slowly but surely they had gotten through the motions of making eye contact, not scowling when the other was in the room, to even having a normal conversation during dinnertime on most evenings.

There was some nights where they couldn't say anything out of fear of triggering the former into sadness, others when they would start a fit of giggles and have the whole table laughing to the point that what caused it was simply forgotten along with the rolling tears of happiness.

It had taken up to Thanksgiving for them to settle their quarrels and accept each other with open arms. Of course, the holidays over the next few years were never simple to deal with as a whole, but having a family to support each other was what made it comfortable, nonetheless.

So it would be, that every once in a while the kids would get their instruments together and just make noise in the observatory, some incomprehensible but mostly actual songs they had composed as a group of cousins and siblings.

Morgan would join in with "family time cooking" with Minion as he taught the kids how to cook basic meals, and accommodate to Megaera's diet while teaching her the appropriate foods and what she should and shouldn't be eating, all that he kept memorizing for them along the way so he too could cook for her.

Morgan would willingly join in on the tea parties that Johnathan threw after watching a traditional geisha ceremony, even after the little one insisted they all wear the _Kimono's_ and _Montsuki's_ which Minion gladly helped Johnathan learn how to sew. He would also come to defend the young boy when it came to the harsh words that others would say when it came to his taste in clothing, or his choices in toys which consisted of dolls and cooking sets.

He would also defend Megaera's tough attitude towards joining the school's boy dominated sports teams such as football and wrestling alongside her friend Kelsey, who lead the cross-country teams each year running. They made strides in both the athletic records and medical journals for their accomplishments, Kelsey going as far as she had with her Palsy limp and Megaera helping her achieve so much with the aid she had given her.

Morgan would go to every track meet, game and competition he could make as the supportive big brother he was trying to be, alongside Megamind and Roxanne. He especially tried to be there for them if their parents couldn't, because he knew how hard it was to try and make it through something when you didn't have all the back-up you deserved.

Especially from your dad.

There would be times that he imagined a gold haired man on the side of the stands, or that he caught a glimpse of those intense blue eyes he had inherited. During one of the lap races, he was positive the blonde hiding under the shade of an oak on the outer perimeter of the school didn't belong, as he seemed to be the same man that would occasionally walk around inside the art museum where he had a part-time job.

He always assumed that if there ever was a chance he got to see his father again, there would be only two reactions; run into his arms with sadness and joy, or ram his fist into his face in anger and hatred. He never suspected there would be a third.

"Everything alright, Morgan?" asked Megamind as he came up the stands holding their colorful snow-cones to cool off from the heat, Johnathan on tow with one of his own.

He kept looking out towards the man who was now holding an intense stare as they had locked eyes. Breaking away from the gaze, he looked up to his uncle slash father and with a cheer said "Yep. Bout time, I think I sweated out most of the water in my body!"

* * *

 _Breathe. Whatever you do, don't freak out. It's been only, what, four years in the making? No biggie. Just remember to breathe. Remember. To. Breathe._

Morgan was hyperventilating as he leaned on a support beam that held up the curtains for the outdoor auditorium where he was about to walk across and deliver a speech. _The_ speech.

He had been chosen as valedictorian and he had to give a speech to hundreds if not thousands of people that were sitting on the stone ledges that made the organic benches. He had been working it over for months, with help from his sister since they would cross paths in school, her being only two grades below him at the time.

The only reason Megaera was still in high school was because she couldn't handle the social awkwardness that came with being an eight year old alone in a college prep school full of sixteen to eighteen year olds, although the following year she would most likely already be taking college courses in the comfort of the high school walls.

He would be going to a community college just a mile away, a few blocks over, but he already feared leaving her alone to deal with their classmates. He taught her to be tough and strong-willed but he knew what she hid behind that demeanor. Besides, it's not like he'll be moving out soon, he still had a couple of years before taking off to the University and then.., and then...

 _Oh shit. I'm a grown up now._

"Hey, you okay back here?" A raven haired head popped up with a headset on, through the red of the curtains that separated the ceremony stage with the hillside that bordered behind it.

"Yeah, no fine. Never better," He replied, trying to muster up a smile but only made himself paler in the process, grimace frozen in a stretch on his face. She let go of the piece of curtain she had been holding back and walked over to him hurriedly, taking each of his shoulders in her arms.

"You're gonna do great, I can feel it. Just, go out there and slay 'em. You know we're here just for you, and you're gonna make them all proud," she said to him in a hushed tone before embracing him and adding "I love you".

"I love you too Sam, now get back to work before they catch you slacking off. You know how your dad gets when he finds out you've been lax," he replied as it was his turn to hold her at arms length, her amber eyes smiling along with her lips, her Celtic necklace swinging as she shook her head.

He watched his cousin go around the curtain's corner before going back to his breathing exercises and focusing on his speech. He could hear the principal and representative of the board wrapping up their speeches which meant he was up next. Everything to the point of him walking up to the podium was a blur, and he nervously went through the motions of adjusting the mike, giving a small laugh, and started to speak.

"Damn"

There was nervous laughing as the adults behind him squirmed with his first word, and he laughed along too before proceeding.

"It's been a hell of a ride these last four years, and I feel there was a lot we were able to learn along the way. Ms. Bunuelo taught us how to calculate using a standard deviation formula. Mr. Brown, who we all refer to simply as 'Coach' taught us how far ahead Chaucer was with his ideals when he added in the 'wife of bath' in 'Canterbury Tales' as a woman well beyond her time. And Mr. Evans taught us to always leave on time because he has a strict 'poop time' timetable he attends to every day on the dot, which I believe he meant to teach us to run our bowel movements on an organized schedule."

There was more laughter coming from the crowd

"And all of this knowledge will no doubt be valuable as we go forward in life. But I think that the most important thing that we've learned over the last four years is to never give up. Things might get hard along the way, and sometimes when you feel like the whole world is on your back you just want to give in to the pressure and lay down. But we all knew this wouldn't be easy to begin with, so we just straightened out our shoulders and marched on, because what we want the most sometimes is the hardest thing to reach, seeming to be right beyond the grasp of our fingertips."

He looked over to the only blue people in the crowd to see Megamind and Roxanne lean into each other, brushing their foreheads together in an act he had come to learn that had a deeper meaning than just a hug or a kiss.

Turning his attention back to the microphone, he looked out to the crowd. "There were a few times I felt like giving it all up, just letting what it was that was crushing me to crumble and fall, but then I would be forced to remember my mother, and the promise I made her to always be strong willed and kind-hearted, to never let anything get me down even when it seems like there's no way back up. There were those who really nailed that ideal when it came to their students and peers. Miss Bunuelo, for showing us that it's not the end result that matters the most, but the evidence of how you got there every time you made us write out the equations piece by piece. Coach, I thank you for edging me on to pursue my passion of art and culture. And Evans, I thank you for showing us that just because we're grown up doesn't mean we have to _be_ a grown up."

More gentle laughter came from the crowd as he straightened out into the mic. "Next, I'd like to take a moment on behalf of myself and my fellow graduates to thank the people that have brought us here, and those who couldn't be with us today."

As he was reading out his list of people and family members to thank, his eyes caught a puff of gold locks, trimmed closely to the head over blue eyes out on the side, just coming out from under a tree, where he likes to hide himself, apparently.

He almost stumbled over his words at the sight of the man who had been gone most of his life, the man who was supposed to be there "through sickness and in health" but had left while in full health and never bothered to show up for the "sickness" part. He looked at the man who should've been his dad, but was nothing more than a father. A coward. A shadow in the dark that will stay that way for the rest of his life.

He turned his attention from the man, who was staring intently at him as he always seemed to do, and looked over to the blue in the crowd who was sitting opposite the shadowed man.

"And I have one more person to thank. My dad."

It seemed to have struck through Megamind, and by the looks of his expression he was confused and hopeful at the same time, not daring to make a move as they both stared at each other through the crowd.

"I've always been tough when it came to being raised in a new family, since I wasn't used to having so many loving people surrounding me 24/7. I know there were some times when we just wanted to quit because of how much of a pain in the butt I had been, but those times are outweighed by all the good in my life you've brought me. So, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me the honor to call you dad."

He had to break his gaze from Megamind because the latter started to blink rapidly which only meant one thing, and Morgan had to keep his composure because he still had a few more words left to say, not bothering to see where his biological father might've ended up.

"So now we're high school graduates. And soon we're going to be signing each others' yearbooks and saying goodbye. There will be hugs and tears. We'll do our best to stay in touch. But we'll also be living our lives and doing our best out there, in the real world."

"As a final thought going forward, I'd like to leave you with something my grandfather told me indirectly once, that 'Life is a Zero-Sum Game. Sometimes people have to lose something in order for someone else to gain from it.' In my experience, I gained what I lost. And I can only hope the same comes for you all. In a 'no karma' way, that is," he defended himself, waving both hands over the podium to laughing that was slowly building up to a whoop and clapping.

"Thank you all," was all he said as he started to walk off the stage, giving quick hand shakes and receiving pats on the back but not fully stopping until he was around the back curtain, in his cousin's crying arms.

* * *

It wasn't until Morgan had walked off the outdoors stage during his high school graduation that the meaning behind his words finally sank in. He came up to his family standing on the side fields and handed the folder that had his diploma over to Megamind, who held it in his hands with confusion still planted on his face, and tried to hand it back.

Morgan gently pushed the diploma back into the mans hand, shaking his head as he said "No, it's yours. Think of it as a down payment. It would only be fair to try and do as much as I can, school wise, after what you've done for me. I don't think I could've made it this far without your support, and I just want to see how far I can actually go."

He looked down to the grass and started kicking around a pebble that was between his dress shoes before continuing, without looking up, "I know things have never been easy between us, and I _do_ wish I could take back some things I've said and done, but in the end it's you who pushed me this long into pursuing a career in cultural heritage, even when almost everyone else gave me a hard time over it. I-well, shit, I-uh, always been bad at what I've wanted to say, so just, thanks. Thanks for everything, dad."

Having not expected any of that to come out of Morgan, Megamind was floored with emotion as he wrapped his arms around his adopted son, and after a few moments the kids with Roxanne, Daniel and Gabriella, and even John had started to wrap around them, the tense silence breaking with laughter as the two in the middle were being crushed by the weight of everyone else. Even Samara had somehow wandered over to them through the crowd, headset still on her head as she wrapped her arms around everyone else. Daniel took one look at her and started yelling as quietly as he could for her to get back to work, to the amusement of everyone else.

After having gone out for dinner at their usual Italian restaurant, the group split their ways as Megamind drove his family home, the kids distracted by having their fight over Morgans cap in the back, Minion sitting alongside with his bowl leaning against the doors window in humored annoyance, Darwin cawing and flapping around on the rear deck trying to avoid the fists that would randomly swing up towards her and Zathri rolled on the floor in his bowl to mock-fight the feet that kicked out as well.

In the front seat both Megamind and Roxanne sat in silence, taking in the sounds of rough-housing coming from the back, their hands interlaced over the papers and foldered diploma that rested in between them.

As they got home Johnathan insisted they have Afternoon Tea and pulled Zathri and Megaera into the kitchen to prepare the sweets, to which Minion and Darwin were obligated to follow.

Roxanne went upstairs to rest for a moment before changing out of what she called her "business dress", and Megamind simply sat in the living room, staring through the floor-to-ceiling windows that faced their bustling city with his hand still on the diploma folder, his wedding band pulsating a small blue light onto the manila envelope.

He could hear Morgan all the way up in the observatory, singing into the silver microphone he helped Megaera make for him several years back. She had been worried and insisted on making something that both her cousin and aunt could have that would unite them. It was then than John suggested something music related because "it's something that can traverse through time and space, can take you back to a favorite memory or carry you forward to the future".

Megamind fell asleep to the sweet melody that was carried down to his ears.

* * *

"Come on, guys, you're gonna make me late for my classes and it's only been a month into my semester!" Morgan called out from his car into the garage, not that the kids could clearly hear him but it still wouldn't stop him from yelling.

"COMING!" was screamed into the room as Megaera ran full speed into the open back door, and cradled her backpack in front of her instead of letting it rest on the seat as usual. He turned over to stare from the drivers seat and slit his eyes suspiciously. "Xa, what do you have in your bag?" he asked.

"Nothing, no-geez, what is TAKING Johnathan so long, I mean, boy does he dress up or what?" she tried to switch topics but wouldn't make direct eye contact while firming her grip on the bag. Morgan wouldn't stop staring and her fidgeting just got worse until she froze at a small sound coming from her bag.

"Give it up, you can't sneak me in like this," was heard through the cotton print which had the periodic table written on it by hand in different colored permanent markers. Her eyes went wide as she snapped her gaze towards Morgan and said a quick "Don't tell mom."

"Don't tell mom what?" Johnathan asked as he struggle to climb up the car, seeing as though the seat was still higher than his waist. He plopped down in what looked to be a vest embezzled in different colored gemstones over a grey pantsuit. On his lap was a folded mech-suit resembling a suit-case he had been working on all summer for Zathri that could carry him, in which he was resting in the middle of the bolts and wires, looking up from his bowl.

"Oh god, _what_ are you wearing and why is he coming with you? I'm not-no, I don't, argh, I -shit I don't have time for this lets just go and let the adults deal with this."

"But you are an adult," Johnathan replied, prying for innocence but not successfully hiding the snarky tone of his voice.

"Well right now this adult is late to class and you kids are gonna have a LOT of explaining to do when you get to your schools," He said quickly as he turned up the volume of his radio to let "Float On" drown out anything they had to shoot back.

* * *

Morgan was leaning on the hood of the car both times when he picked up each Megaera and Johnathan from their schools, and each time he had a smirk across his face as he said "Well, looks like someone had a great day," although Megaera replied with "I can't believe he told mom," as she hugged Darwin and Johnathan gave a simple "Eh, I've had worse," while Zathri walked alongside him to the car, helping him get on this time.

They drove in silence for a moment before Morgan breathed out heavily and said "Look, I know it's tough for you two to get adjusted to your new schools. Meg, I mean it's not easy being the youngest by almost a decade attending in AP college prep, and it's scary being all alone. And Jay you don't have to try so hard to be flashy and fit in with the other third graders."

"Who said I was trying to fit in?" he looked over the seats to his big brother with puzzlement.

Morgan laughed over the steering wheel as he came up to a stop light. But instead of driving straight towards the direction of their home, he took a left turn, to which the kids in the back noticed.

"Tell you what, you guys are gonna get it rough when we get home, so maybe we don't have to go straight over just yet," he said over his shoulder.

With uncertainty, the four in the back spoke over each other.

"Wait where are we going-"  
"This isn't the right way-"  
"Is this one of those kidnappings dad would do-"  
"Johnathan hush, Morgan we get it, we're sorry-

"Hey-hey, whoa, take it easy, I'm just going to make a quick visit by my mom's. But first, let's get some ice cream."

The kids were still nervous, but the promise of a frozen treat seemed to calm their nerves.

* * *

 **OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO HARD.**

 **And I sit here disappointed in myself, thinking I could've done better. I actually spent the last two, wait, three weeks staring at the blinking line on my word document not being able to piece this chapter together, let alone how to even start it.**

 **All I could figure was that sadly, Morgan would be better off with Megs and Roxanne. And it wasn't an easy decision, let me tell you. Took me bout three days actually.**

 **I don't really have any following notes for this one, other than it's been hard for me lately, and I don't think I should continue a story I don't have my entire mindset devoted to, which is sad because I actually do have a few chapters I want to add to this, and one which is already written half-way.**

 **I'm having an identity crisis, and I'm borderline ending this here or going all the way and ending this like I never intended to but somehow got sucked into, even though I have an actual ending in mind.**

 **Thoughts? Opinions?**

 **Please let me know in the comments slash reviews, I love you all but am struggling to actually keep going through with this because it feels almost fruitless.  
**  
 **It just might be everything else that's going on right now that's affecting my mindset, though.**

 **I need to know what to do, and I'm stuck!  
**


End file.
